A/N: I believe that I may have a storyline worked out, it's kind of vague at the moment but I think I can flesh it out a bit. I've come to the realisation that I really don't know enough of the Battlestar Galactica storyline and characters to emulate it effectively. I find myself having to read BSG wiki entries for ages with each chapter to ensure that I don't contradict anything. Therefore, I'm going to give up trying to get each character's personality right and just go with what I think feels right in the story context. Also, I've read up on Forerunner combat skins, and the comment made by the monitor in Chapter 1 was a mistake. MJOLNIR Mk V is only on tier with a class 2 combat skin, not class 6 as I said earlier. However, you could say that the monitor didn't do in-depth scans and at first glance decided that the suit couldn't be higher than class 6 at most.

Twihard1990 managed to get the name of the second Spartan right. I'm quite impressed really, I only gave the name of the planet (Heian) and the two combatants involved. I think I'll leave the rest of you in suspense for now, but if you really want to know, you can look for the review.

Chapter 4 – First Contact, sort of

Daisy-023 – Forerunner Facility

The walls were made of a greyish, silvery metal and the entire facility was spotless. Daisy made her way onwards, her MA5C was drawn, loaded and with safety off, but not held ready, with no apparent hostiles, the action would be pointless. The place appeared to be deserted, her motion sensor picked up nothing and silence permeated the area, only disrupted by her heavy armour-clad footsteps. She'd left a navigational marker where she woke, up next to the other Spartan, her route was saved onto her suit's computers and backtracking would be easy. The endless emptiness was incredibly unsettling. Daisy had never really been alone for years. Either surrounded by awed UNSC personnel, with other Spartans or fighting Covenant. She'd always been within UNSC communication range at the very least. She wasn't scared though, Spartans didn't get scared, just cautious.

A quiet humming sound, benign and easily unnoticeable appeared from further ahead. Whilst most would disregard as being part of the atmosphere of a place, a background buzz, not Daisy. Amplified by MJOLNIRs sensors and clear in her ears, she dove backwards to the last intersection and took cover behind the corner. As the noise grew closer, she activated the camera mounted on the end of her gun and held it, pointing around the corner, giving her a view of the situation whilst remaining safe. After a couple of seconds, a small drone made its way across the next intersection. There was a central section, with four other parts connected to it; two wing-like sections, a 'head' that housed a blue light, and an under slung section with a yellow glow. Oddly enough, there were no visible thrusters or propellers providing the lift that would be required for it to hover. Since her exploration of the facility had yielded nothing but empty corridors connecting to more empty corridors. Daisy appreciated this disruption in the monotony.

Keeping a distance of around fifteen meters and sneaking as quietly as one can in half a ton of armour, Daisy followed the mysterious floating machine. After ten minutes of painstakingly slow pursuit, she arrived at a room. Of course there had been other rooms, but they had been small, sometimes entirely empty and only had small illegible computers or some furniture. This room was a nexus of activity, with dozens of the drones floating to and fro, some looking to be merely milling around whilst others, if a machine could look focused, were working intently at various computer terminals. Amongst all of these, there was one terminal that stood out from the rest. In the centre of the room and at ground level, there was a floating holographic ball.

Taking slow, deliberate steps towards it; Daisy moved closer, receiving no resistance from the machine caretakers, in fact they didn't even react to her presence. As she neared the sphere, she could see that it was made of hundreds of small segments, each with a glyph on them. Once she was almost next to it, something deep inside stirred, an urge, a sudden feeling. Acting on impulse, she reached out and held her hand onto the ball. Underneath her glove, the ball rotated and changed rapidly, until each finger was below a certain glyph. Daisy pressed down, at once, a blow light swept up and down her. Inside the computer, processes and protocols set thousands of years ago leapt into action and determined that the being standing in front of it was a human, bipedal, sentient, average strength and a surprisingly high level of ingenuity and intelligence, more importantly however, the being was a Reclaimer! At this revelation, which took mere nanoseconds for the ancient, advanced computer to work out and spread across the network, every sentinel in the room stopped and pivoted around, looking directly at Daisy.

Momentarily stunned by her being the sudden centre of attention, Daisy quickly reacted and threw herself behind a nearby console and drew her MA5C. Against her expectations, her position wasn't suddenly bombarded by all manner of weaponry. Once again using her gun camera, she peeked over her rudimentary cover and saw that all the drones were just hovering there, waiting expectantly. Next, she held her hand up, ready to withdraw it at the first sign of trouble. Cautiously, she stood up, hoping her shields would be able to last long enough for her to return to cover if they suddenly started firing at her, although they appeared to have no visible weapon mounts, one would not think that covenant plasma rifles, lacking a barrel, stock, magazine or any other recognisable weapon parts, were actually weapons, until they burned through your armour and killed you that is. She was just emerging from cover when a loud sound made her return to it. The voice, swept through several languages she did not understand before finally settling on English.

"Is this language understandable to you?" The voice asked

Daisy was unsure of what to do, before tentatively answering "Yes"

"Good. Welcome to Shield World Gateway Facility #27 of the Forerunner Eucumene, how may I assist you?" The voice, sounding quite high pitched and cheerful, but clearly male asked.

Still unsure of what to do, Daisy asked the most prominent question she could think of, "Uh, where am I?"

"I have told you, you are in Shield World Gateway Facility #27, to the galactic north east of Erde-Tyrene. Your confusion is understandable, according to the monitor that delivered you here, you were seriously injured in battle, you were healed and placed in stasis"

"Stasis? How long?"

"Oh, not long at all, only 28 stellar rotations of your home planet, Erde-Tyrene" The voice replied, not registering the shock in Daisy's voice.

"28 years, I wonder if Earth is still there, wait, Erde-Tyrene?"

"Whilst I am unable to tell you if your 'Earth' is 'still there', since my sensor coverage does not extend beyond a few light years of this facility, I can suggest that 'Earth' would still be in existence as the force required to totally destroy the planet or deorbit it would be incredibly significant and no nearby stars should enter the super nova stage for at least another billion years by earliest estimates. Erde-Tyrene is your homeworld. Ah, I see the source of the confusion, a quick check in your combat skin's computer systems confirms that your Earth and Erde-Tyrene are one and the same. The planet is in a different location but after accounting for stellar drift, they are the same planet."

"You can hack my armour's systems? The location of Earth is classified information! Even smart AIs would take at least a few minutes to break through the encryptions and firewalls!" Daisy was shocked at the sudden breach of the Cole protocol, thousands, maybe millions had died to try and keep Earth's location safe, only for a computer to pluck it out from her armour with almost no effort at all.

"Ah, yes, I encountered your computer defences, they are severely subpar by Forerunner standards, your combat skin is little more than a surprisingly well armed and combat orientated environmental suit, barely above a class 2, maybe a class 3. You would probably be interested to know that there is a sizeable fleet of ships in orbit of the planet, there are several thousand human life signs aboard. There are also landing craft on the surface with several hundred humans."

"Humans, here?"

Adm. Adama – Surface of Algae Planet

"Admiral, the marines are ready, as soon as we got close to try and plant some high grade explosives, the door just opened for us, good thing too since I don't think we could have gotten through that with anything less than a tactical nuke."

"Ok, see what's inside, weapons ready but don't fire unless fired upon."

With that, several black clad marines made their way through the doorway, flashlights illuminating the darkness. Soon after entry, they found themselves in a featureless silvery-grey corridor, engraved patterns subtly littered the walls and floors. Lights flickered on, illuminating the whole area. Admiral Adama, Tyrol and some of his deck hands followed on, safely behind the wall of marines taking point. They had barely made it twenty meters in when a voice emanating from seemingly everywhere spoke to them. The marines raised rifles and formed a defensive circle around the Admiral whilst the deckhands scrambled for their side arms.

"Greetings, welcome to Shield World Gate Facility #27 of the Forerunner Eucumene, a Reclaimer has requested your presence, prepare for teleportation"

Just as the deckhands finally got ready, they, along with everyone else, were enveloped in golden light and after a slight disorientation similar to a FTL jump, which the veterans quickly recovered from, found themselves in an entirely different place than they were before. A large area, with a high ceiling and screens on seemingly every surface. Whilst the colonials were certainly bewildered, one thing they did notice though was the multitude of machines moving all over the place. Many of which were looking right at them. When one's civilization has been wiped out by artificial intelligence controlled robots, seeing a horde of robots tends to put one on edge, and for other, pushes them off the edge.

A rattle of machine gun fire broke the silence as a marine opened fire on one of the nearby sentinels. It's shields flared for a few seconds before the sustained fire broke it down and the sentinel collapsed onto the ground shortly after. Before having the chance to cause more damage, the fallen sentinel's comrades expertly disarmed the marine with a beam melting most of the rifle into unusable sludge. The marine suffered burns on his hands but was mostly un harmed. As the rest of the marines began to get ready to fire, they paused when they heard a quick "Wait!" shouted out to them.

Their first thought was 'Centurion!' before they noticed substantial differences in the design. Whilst standing at over two meters tall, the figure before them was not the Cylon they were all used to. Instead of the sleek, organic lines of a centurion, there was a black under suit, covered by several segments of thick red armour. In place of the red light swinging from side to side, there was a large golden face plate, reflecting all their images back at them. It was very much similar to the centurions from the first war, bulky and armed with a large assault rifle compared to the built in armaments of the more modern Cylons.

Admiral Adama, much to the protests of the marines, pushed forward to the front, sidearm in his hand, but held downwards. The marines were dreading any kind of hostile actions, although the Admiral was wearing body armour, they had just seen a laser liquefy a metal rifle, no doubt it could do the same to the leader of the fleet, and they would be the ones to blame.

"What are you? Where are we?" Demanded the Admiral, his voice was soft, but it held a tone of authority that few would dare question.

"Chief Petty Officer Sierra Twenty Three, United Nations Space Command. As to where we are, I don't know, the computer just tells me that we're in a facility somewhere in the galactic east." The figure answered.

Daisy-023 – Forerunner Facility

As soon as she asked the computer whether she could talk to the humans, the rather hyperactive AI went to work and told her she was bringing them to her as hastily as possible. Before she could correct it, a flash of golden light deposited a number of figures right in front of her. They were military, that was for sure, and they were human, but from the uniform, they didn't look like her military. The full black was a contrast to the normal marine gear, more befitting an ODST, but they were lacking the full body armour and sealed helmet for that. Add to that that she didn't recognise the badges on their shoulders, she could only come to the conclusion that these soldiers were not UNSC. The next question was, where they hostile? If so, then her MJOLNIR and their lack of cover ought to give her an advantage, in some ways that would be easier, she wouldn't have to be diplomatic.

After a few moments, one of them started firing at the sentinels, the other machines retaliated in a shocking display of fire power. Seeing each drone capable of utilising such a powerful weapon made her a little more wary of being surrounded by dozens of them. Deciding to take a chance and hope they were friendly, she called out to them and attracted their attention.

"Wait!" Daisy shouted, she was successful in preventing further violence, if only for a few seconds.

A figure, older than the other marines, emerged from their ranks, he had significantly more elaborate symbols on his collar, and unlike the other marines, wasn't wearing full black, but rather a black armoured vest over a blue uniform.

"What are you? Where are we?" The man demanded, his authoritative tone and him acting as spokesperson for the group gave more credence to her theory that he was a higher ranking officer, a primary target if things went sour.

Although the people could be any number of things from mercenaries, pirates or insurrectionists, she had to say something, that number of assault rifles would break though even her armour and she still wasn't sure whose side the spectating drones would take.

"Chief Petty Officer Sierra Twenty Three, United Nations Space Command. As to where we are, I don't know, the computer just tells me that we're in a facility somewhere in the galactic east."

"Who are you?" she countered

Adama was surprised at the female voice from the figure. Had had assumed that it would be a robot, or a very heavily armoured man. Deciding to let the relatively calm conversation continue, he responded. However, to his knowledge, only machines used names, serial numbers, of 'Sierra-023'. He was also unfamiliar with the 'United Nations Space Command'. This could be a first contact situation, although no signs of alien life had been encountered in all their years of space travel, granted, they had barely left their home cluster.

"My name is Admiral Adama of the Colonial Fleet and Colonial Remnant. Are you human?" The exchange of questions continued.

"Yes, I am human, I haven't heard of your organisation, what is it?"

"We are escaping from our homeworlds that were attacked, I command our last Battlestar, the Galactica, and am trying to lead us to Earth."

Daisy just about thought that she had the group figured out now. Perhaps refugees from various planets that had been attacked by the covenant, forming a quasi-military and trying to return to the inner worlds. Since the Cole protocol ordered the deletion of all navigational indexes from civilian vessels, their inability to reach Earth was understandable. The UNSC should have guided any refugees back, but mistakes and losses were inevitable in war.

"I haven't heard of your 'United Nations Space Command', what is it?"

And her previous theory was just blown out of the water. Even the most backwater colony rife with insurrectionists would know what the UNSC is. Her next thought was that maybe this was that became of the few ships that never reappeared during the early years of slipspace travel.

"The UNSC is the military arm of the United Earth Government, wh…" her question died on her lips as she noticed the expressions on the faces of the people in front of her.

Adama and the others were shocked beyond belief. They knew they were on the path to Earth, but they certainly hadn't expected to find themselves in actual contact till they got much closer to their destination. This was news beyond words, it would bring the light of hope to a people that was barely holding on. Adama had his own private reasons, unknowing if Earth actually existed when he promised it to the thousands of destitute survivors, knowing that he might be able to keep that promise was a weight off his chest. Not one to get his hopes up early though, Adama needed confirmation.

"Earth, you're really from Earth?"

"I was born on Sargasso actually, but I've been to Earth a few times."

"Sargasso?"

"A colony, medium sized, mostly agricultural but with a few cities."

"How do I know you're telling the truth? This could be an elaborate trick, it wouldn't be beyond the Cylons after New Caprica" Inside though, he doubted this possibility. If the Cylons had somehow known the fleet would be headed to the Algae planet, they would have been met by base stars, raiders and a multitude of nuclear weapons rather than a trick structure. The laser of some sort that the machine had used was too advanced to be the Cylons as well.

"You don't, but I still don't know who you are, I've never heard of any Colonial Fleet, from the name of it, you could be surprisingly well organised and armed insurrectionists." Countered Daisy.

Deciding to take the chance, Adama would take 23's word for her origins, after all, beggars can't be choosers and the Colonial Remnant was on the brink of martial law.

"Then we will have to work on mutual trust. Our people are desperate, we're barely surviving and have been looking for Earth, can you lead us there?"

Whilst it was incredibly unlikely that these people were traitors working for the Covenant and she would personally try to assist any refugees lucky enough to escape the Covenant, doing so in this case would be a blatant breach of the Cole Protocol. Said protocol was one of the main reasons why the alien advance had stalled considerably. It was for the higher ups to make such a decision, not her responsibility nor her right to gamble with the survival of humanity.

"I don't know where we are in comparison to Earth, I just woke up here, in addition to that, the Cole Protocol prevents me from revealing the location of Earth or any of her colonies."

"What? Why, there's only just over thirty thousand of us left, we need to reach Earth, why can't you tell us?"

"As I said, I couldn't tell you as I don't know where we are. The Cole Protocol is in place to prevent the Covenant learning the location of our planets. Billions have died and a couple of dozen thousand people doesn't outweigh the possibility of billions more dying."

Adama, despite the flood of emotions at the thought of finding Earth, was not ignorant of the numbers cited. Billions dying? What could cause such a tragedy. Had the Cylons found Earth, no, 23 had mentioned a Covenant, what was the Covenant? If Earth wasn't safe, where was?

"Billions dying? How could this happen? What is the Covenant?"

Daisy was leaning more and more towards the long lost colony ships idea. No human didn't know of the Covenant, you would have to be a particularly anti-social hermit living under a rock in a nuclear bunker on the edge of known space, to not have heard of the genocidal aliens responsible for the on-going extermination of humanity. With nothing to lose, she might as well play their game, it might be the truth. Answering as clearly as possible:

"We've been at war with a group calling themselves the Covenant, they have advanced plasma weapons and energy shields, we've been fighting a losing battle for years now. The Covenant is a collection of seven, as far as we know, alien races that first attacked the colony Harvest in 2525 with the message "Your destruction is the will of the Gods and we are their instrument". For five years, they've been finding human colonies and bombarding the planet with plasma weapons till the surface melts to silicon, hence, glassing. Well, I suppose it's been longer than that now. The computer here told me that I've been in stasis for 28 years, that would make it 2558 by the UNSC calendar. I… I don't know if Earth is still there. We were losing planets every few months, Earth might have been glassed already."

Daisy was quite ashamed of losing her composure like that, but talking about the possible extinction of humanity and the loss of Earth, that was something that made even Spartans worried.

The Colonials weren't taking the news well either. The idea of striving towards Earth for so long and it being a burnt wasteland when they got there was certainly disheartening. They didn't know what it meant that Earth might have been 'glassed' but from the context it was pretty obvious that it was a bad thing.

"Earth might be gone?"

Both sides remained silent for a minute.

"I need to get back to the UNSC, I can't take you to a planet, but I can take you to within UNSC space, a patrol would probably come across us, from there, a military escort could take you a planet after we're sure the Covenant aren't following. You said there are only thirty thousand of you left, how did that happen?"

"We used to inhabit 12 colonies, we created artificial intelligence to make our lives easier. The CYbernetic Life fOrm NodeS or Cylons were the latest in autonomous soldiers and workers. Until they rebelled, after the initial war, we had a ceasefire. After 40 years, they came back, used a virus to shut down our defences, leaving our ships floating dead, they nuked the colonies. We're all that remains, escaping on whatever Faster Than Light capable ships we could gather."

The story was certainly a sad one, but after the dozens of planets wiped out, she had grown rather used to and impassive to the suffering.

"Sorry for your loss, are you willing to take up my offer and try to get us both back?"

Adama didn't want to let an unknown quantity aboard his ship, with so much to lose, but there was also so much to gain. The chance to find Earth or at least make further contact with their cousins was too great a reward to give up.

"Yes, you may come aboard, we are still unable to return to the surface as we are not sure how we got here."

The computer spoke up again, having remained silent for quite a long time given his cheerful, often inappropriately so, demeanour.

"Ah, I can help with that, I'll have you all at the surface in a flash."

A slight tingling sensation was felt by all of them, before the golden light from before flowed all around them. Daisy's MJOLNIR flickered and glowed as the shields and teleporter made contact. Soon enough they were, as promised, in a different place to the control room. What they did not expect though, was to find themselves in the middle of a grassy field, a veritable Eden, with life growing and all around. One slight problem was that there was a miniature star in the sky above them, and when looking up, they could see the land they were on curve upwards. They were on the inside of a giant, if such a word could describe the vastness of their location, sphere.

A/N: This is the longest chapter I have ever written and has taken me roughly 3 hours over 3 days. This was one of the easiest to write as I feel the story is flowing a lot more now. Next chapter, we get to see things from the UNSC side and if anyone has played Halo: Wars, they'll recognise a lot of the stuff happening. Oh why Microsoft, why would you make an RTS on a console. Anyway, there may be significant delays between this chapter and the next, thanks for all the reviews, they're really encouraging.