Disclaimer: I don't own BSG, or any of the characters in the series. All the original characters ARE my property.

Author Note: I appreciate the reviews I've gotten so far, keep em coming!

(The hustle and bustle on the flight deck was like only a few other times that Lee "Apollo" Adama had ever seen it. The deckhands were working furiously to get the vipers that had just landed back into their respective bays before tending to any maintenance that would need done and rearming. Of course that was before the two monstrosities known as Stregas were pulled into the hangar bay.)

(Kara Thrace pulled up beside the man she formerly knew as her best friend, both of them still clad in their flight gear. After all, no time to change when they were the head of the impromptu reception party. The Admiral was still on his way down from CIC, so Starbuck and Apollo would have to go into this together just like they did in combat.)

"Kinda gives you shivers knowing we almost got killed by those frakking things out there doesn't it Major?"

"Almost. My Gods who or what could have built those things?"

"From what I heard on the wireless, they're human, or at least more like us than we think."

(Lee turned his head to Kara with a look that was half stern, half questioning.)

"Hey don't blame me for that assumption, everybody has a skill, remember?" She said, her hands up as if to say 'I surrender'. It almost amused Apollo, if he were in the mood to be amused, or if it had been anybody else he might have been.

(Suddenly from what appeared to be a seamless nose area, a loud hiss was heard, some of the marines brought weapons to bear, which caused a voice from the entrance to the hangar deck to bellow out.)

"HOLD FIRE! Nobody shoots unless I give the order or unless you're fired upon!" Admiral Adama always had a way of asserting himself over a situation which seemed just about ready to spiral out of control.

"Attention on deck!" Lee called out, and immediately everybody in the hangar deck snapped to attention, some even in spite of what they were doing.

"Carry on!" came the reply from the Admiral.

(As he walked past the two huge planes, both of which more resembled predatory birds than fighter craft, Admiral Adama couldn't help but admire the design that went into each and every detail seemingly. He stopped in front of a simply awestruck Chief Tyrol.)

"Quite a sight aren't they Chief? What do you make of them?"

"Yes sir, and to answer the admiral's question, I've never seen anything like them."

"That's probably because you don't have them," came the answer from Lt. Devereux as she pulled her helmet off and shook her long black hair out.

"What my esteemed colleague the Lieutenant is trying to say is that from the looks of it, your fleet R&D is lagging behind ours." came the reply from the other Strega, just before the man that the Admiral assumed to be Capt. Grimm stepped out and hopped down to the stepladder that was presented to him. He strode down to the bottom stair and before getting off the ladders, both stopped and snapped a salute to the admiral, which was returned by the Admiral, Chief Tyrol, Major Adama and Capt. Thrace.

"Captain Lance Grimm, call sign Hades of the Neo Colonial Fleet. Permission to come aboard Admiral?"

"Permission granted Captain, and Lieutenant…"

"Devereux, Katherine Devereux, Admiral. My Call sign is Ashura."

"Ah the god of the underworld and queen of monsters. Quite the pair you two make I'm sure. Now Captain, I said I'd explain the marine guard, but do you mind if we all speak in my quarters?"

"Not at all Admiral, after all first contacts like this one are kind of uncommon even by our standards, we've been given orders to make sure you know the pertinent information that you need."

(As the party walked from the hangar deck, Marine guards flanking the admiral, the introductions were made between Ashura, Hades, Starbuck, and Apollo, albeit somewhat informally.)

"So Major, stop me if I'm wrong but those fighters that you and the Captain, along with your airgroup were in, were they Mark II Vipers?"

"Actually some where Mark II's the others that you saw with the forward swept wings were Mark VII's."

"Interesting. And Galactica, am I right in assuming it's one of the original 12 that were ever built?"

"Captain, if I may ask you a question, how in the name of the Lords of Kobol did you know that?"

"The designs are similar to what we've seen…"

"AHEM!" the clearing of Lt. Devereux's throat cut into what Capt. Grimm was saying.

"Something wrong Lieutenant?" came the question from Starbuck.

"Actually with the marine guard around, one would think that you all are afraid of us for some reason. I just wanted to remind the Captain that we don't know what kind of territory we're dealing with."

"Ashura, if I didn't think they needed to know, I wouldn't tell them."

"Yes sir, sorry sir."

"Now where was I?"

"Actually Captain, why don't we hold off on that until we do get inside the Admiral's quarters, now that I think about it?"

"If you insist, Major."

(It didn't take long for them to reach Admiral Adama's quarters, and it took even less time after they all settled in for the questions to begin flying. Adama quickly brought silence to the proceedings and dropped the bombshell on the newcomers.)

"Captain Grimm, Lieutenant Devereux, I'm sure it may seem like you've stepped out of whatever it is that you know and into some hellish alternate reality, however, what I'm about to tell you is in fact, very real. For the last two plus years this fleet has been running from the Cylons following the complete eradication of our race on the 12 Colonies of Kobol. What you see before you, in those ships out there, is all that is left of the population of the 12 colonies."

"And that is the reason for the marine guard?" piped up Devereux, a frown creasing her somewhat pretty features. This question got a look of reproach from Captain Grimm.

"No. We came to the discovery after the destruction of the colonies that the Cylons have found a way to make themselves look, and feel human."

"You've gotta be frakking kidding me."

"No Captain, I assure that this is, in fact, real. The Cylons managed to penetrate our security networks, shut down our fleet like they were throwing a switch, and destroy the colonies at their leisure. So far as we know, only two battlestars, this one, and the Pegasus, which has since been destroyed in battle, survived the initial attacks."

"My Gods…"

"So Captain, my question is this, where exactly did you and the Lieutenant come from?"

"Might you be implying that we're some of these human looking Cylons?"

"Not at all Captain, but looking at the technology you have, and seeing that we've let you know what the situation is with us, we're all waiting to hear what you have to say about your origins."

(The young captain cleared his throat and shuffled himself about slightly before looking each person in the room square in the eye as he spoke.)

"Given the circumstances, what I'm about to tell you all can not leave this room."

"Understood, captain."

"40 years ago, after the first Cylon war, there was a secret project, a "trump card" as it was apparently called by the admiralty of the Colonial Fleet to ensure that should the Cylons break the truce that followed the war, that at least SOME of humanity would survive."

"I never heard anything about this." The Admiral interjected.

"If I may ask, was there a disappearance of a large number of people, or even several disappearances of smaller numbers of very important people in the years following the war?"

"Now that you mention it, yes."

"Those people, including some of the top scientists and their families, were commissioned as part of this project. They either came up missing or were 'killed' in a series of accidents so that if there were any who might be in league with the Cylons, they wouldn't possibly get suspicious and begin snooping around. They were packaged on a series of FTL capable ships, and were escorted by a newly built battlestar. They were told to jump, no specific heading or coordinates, and they were supplied with enough food and fuel to last them 5 years and if by the end of that 5 years they had not found a planet to settle on they were to return to the colonies."

"Apparently they found a planet." Apollo chimed in.

"Indeed, they found a planet after their twenty seventh jump. Nearly a year and a half into their voyage, a planet that was determined to be habitable was discovered, but with one major problem."

"And that was?"

"Electro magnetic activity levels in the atmosphere were way too high. They couldn't so much as send a survey probe to the surface or it would short out due to the high level of EM radiation. However, after a couple years of research and retrofitting of the survey craft, they were able to make their way onto the surface, and begin settlement. Over the years, their technology advanced, and they even sent periodic updates to the Colonial Fleet Admiralty regarding the ongoing projects."

"So Fleet knew about you? How is that possible?"

"They were the ones who originated the project after all. It was to guarantee the survival of our species that they did what they did."

"However, about 10 years ago, the decision was made to stop sending the information back to the Colonies, as we found there to be high levels of Cylon activity. Apparently the Cylons had been on the move, colonizing planets on their own. It wasn't until a survey party came into our territory that the decision was made though."

"The Cylons found you?"

"No. Their scouting party jumped into the upper atmosphere of our planet, and their circuits were fried instantly. We figure it was because of the systems high EM levels that their jump computers sent them where they did."

"Explain Captain, because I'm not sure I follow you."

"Basically Admiral, due to EM interference, our system looks like a gigantic hole in space. In other words, any scans, probes, anything sent there has never transmitted anything back, and thus it would seem as though there's simply nothing there. The Cylons must have not thought a planet would be right where they were jumping, must've been a hell of a shock for them, figuratively and literally. A couple basestars jumped in a couple days later and we were forced to shut everything down on the planet save for passive DRADIS scans, and wait until the Cylons were satisfied that there was nothing there save for a planet they couldn't inhabit. They left us alone after that but everything changed for us from that point on."

"How so?"

"We've been on a perpetual state of Condition 2 since. The war machine kicked into high gear, in the last 5 years alone, 50 battlestars have been kicked out by our battle factories. And that's added to the 20 we made in the 20 years prior to that."

"Wait a minute, you're saying you've got a fleet of 70 battlestars up and ready?" Starbuck asked, her voice teetering on the brink of incredulous.

"That's exactly what I'm saying. And before you ask why we haven't attacked the Cylons yet, it's because up until the last few years we had no idea what they were doing or what they were mobilizing for."

"Now you have your answer, Captain."

"Indeed, Admiral. Had we known they were gearing up to destroy the colonies we might have moved on them, all things considered."

"Explain that, Captain, what do you mean by 'all things considered'?"

(Grimm took a deep breath, knowing he may have just said too much, but after a moment of silence, he looked the admiral directly in the eye.)

"We know where the Cylon home world is, Admiral."