Titan attacks Caprica!
That was the headline of the paper on Adar's desk. Not even a full standard day after the attack the fallout of the attack was only beginning to appear. The official story was that the Earthers had attacked both Picon and Caprica in an attempt to both destroy the head of the military and the government in a single shot. No mention had been made about Scorpia, and if any questions were asked they were to be deflected in a means which implied the station having been moved by the Aschen, but without explicitly stating it as such.
Adar turned his attention to the man sitting on the other side of his desk.
"So about that technology you promised."
"Unfortunately mister president." Borren stated flatly. "The issue has never been our unwillingness to uplift your people; the issue has been the ability to do so. When my people lost our home world we lost the infrastructure which built and maintained our technology. What we have cannot be replaced if it is lost. To bring your worlds to the level we and the Earthers are at, it will take years, maybe longer, of uninterrupted modernization. We aren't just trying to teach your people how to build something, we're trying to teach you how the fundamentals behind how to build equipment which itself is only used to build technology ahead of it. It is like teaching a farmer to go from using manual labour to building a fusion powered automated harvester. There are many steps in between."
"Alright, and did you with your superior technology find a way to maximize the speed we manage to do all this?"
"We have several plans, the shortest of which is five years. The more pragmatic one…"
"What's that plan?"
"Which plan?"
"The five year plan."
"Oh." Borren paused for a moment. "It was one which was deemed 'possible but not viable in the long term'."
"And what exactly was it?"
"The simplified version was that the colonies would have all possible resources put towards the development of new technology. The problem was that, even ignoring the crippling debt and high unemployment levels, it left the colonies relatively undefended as the remaining shipyards would be dedicated to upgrading existing ships instead of building new ones. This wouldn't have been as large of an issue without the loss of Scorpia shipyard; however with it gone the options are greatly limited. The most pragmatic plan we have will take an estimated eight years to bring your weapons technology to the same level as our own."
"Eight years?" Adar stated in defeat. Borren said nothing as the president sank into his seat. "Eight years."
Queenstown, Picon
Train station at the outskirts of the capital
Above the crowded station platform a squad of vipers flew low.
"That's the third time since this morning." One of the older women stated. "Haven't seen anything like that since the war."
"It's the fifth I've seen. Before this whole thing started we'd be lucky to have one of these a week." A man stated.
"I don't know what they hope to find, it's obvious they didn't land anywhere near hear."
"I heard the thing crashed and they want to find the parts so we can use the tech for ourselves."
"I heard that they destroyed a whole fleet in orbit."
"Which 'they'? The Earthers or us?"
"Both."
"I heard…"
"I heard…"
"I heard…"
"I heard it was a Cylon." There was an instant quiet over the crowd. The general attention went towards the soldier who had said that. "Pulled maneuvers which would have torn a human apart."
"If the Earthers where aligned with the Cylons, wouldn't they have just nuked us?" A girl asked from a few meters away. "How do we know they didn't have a titan in there? After all, we saw what one could do on Caprica, what makes you think only one god has chosen to fight with them?"
"Typical Gemenese, thinking everything has to be about the gods. Girly, that thing was at best a minion of Hades."
"Minion or not, he got on the governments doorstep on its own. I'd hate to see what the pantheon would do to us."
"Ha, and why would one of the better gods be anger at us?" The solder asked.
"Well, we did try to conquer them."
The soldier said nothing, but gave the girl a death glare which almost made her drop the bag in her hands. She seemed a frail girl, still naïve to the realities of the world. When the train arrived, she made sure to get on a different car then the soldier.
"Don't worry, he's probably just scared." A slightly older boy said. "We're all scared after all. He didn't shake you up too badly, did he?"
The girl shook her head. "No, I'm fine. My father was a pretty pessimistic Caprican."
"I see. You look Gemenese though."
"My mother. I take after her looks, or so I'm told." She took a seat next to the boy. "Thanks for trying to help. It's not easy being Foritza on Picon."
"Ik mortus aliutza, betupsi." The boy stated with a slight grin.
"That's very kind of you to say, mister…?" The girl asked with a blush.
"My name's Peter. You?"
The girl gave him a wide smile.
"I'm Mary."
Battlestar Galactica
Port Hanger Bay
Adama wasn't sure what to make of it. The object, or objects to be more precise, seemed to be some sort of refined but different tylium. It had the same molecular makeup, and whatever it was made of was highly refined. But to refine tylium to such a degree, it was impossible. It had been tried, it had failed. It was deemed impossible by the laws of physics as they knew it.
And yet here it was. Tylium so highly refined that it became a super hard conductive material. He wondered what such material would do to explosives as a force multiplier, and then shut that horrifying thought away.
"Chief, what am I looking at?"
"A puzzle sir."
"A puzzle?"
"Yes sir, a ten thousand piece, thirty-six ton puzzle." The chief took a step back from the pile that had been spread out. "I can put it back together, but it'll take time."
"Take as many men as you can spear."
"Sir I'd need to do this on my own." Adama thought about it for a moment. It was a puzzle, and it could be done faster with more people, but if something was misplaced by one that another person needed. "Alright. Though keep someone near for moving things. Thirty-six tons isn't going to move itself."
"Yes sir."
With Adama walking off, the Chief got to work putting together the pieces.
Office of Director O'neill
The Peak
"Sir, we have to go after her. We can't just leave her back there."
Jack looked up from the paperwork on his desk. "Yes Haida, just walk into my office. How about you take your Avalon for a joyride while you're at it?"
"Sorry sir, it's just… I can't stand by and leave one of my team behind enemy lines."
"I've seen your file; I know how far you're willing to go to save one of your own."
"Sir I would like to remind you I didn't violate any orders or regulations when I was in…"
"Let me finish."
"Sir."
"Alright. Captain Jon Haida, when I was your age I hadn't even considered entering the military yet. You've fought aliens and gone to another dimension to recover a lost member of your team. And Mary was there with you the whole time. I think she can handle herself while we get ready to mount a rescue."
Jon shifted slightly, unsure of how he felt about the comment. "You have a point sir, but I'd like to point out we didn't exactly win that fight."
"You may know that, I may know that, but the world doesn't need to know that. Now if you'll excuse me I have here transfer orders that I think pertains to you."
Jack handed a paper to Jon, who took a moment to read over it.
"I think that will work, sir."
"Alright, now get out of my office. I got the PoW camp's commander on my ass for giving him thirty thousand new prisoners when all they were prepared for was an extra twenty thousand. Do you have any idea how much that man loves the sound of his own voice?" Jon didn't answer, just leaving for one of the transporter rooms.
Free Sagittaron Party Headquarters
Tawa, Sagittaron
Three men sat in the large office. It was late in the night, most of the workers in the district having long gone home. The only light the room had was coming from a desk lamp. The center of attention was a vial, its purple liquid more valuable in their minds then anything they had ever seen.
"The test results came back, there's no question about it." One of the three stated. Tom leaned back in his seat.
"This, this could take down everything. Adar, the government, the Aschen, this could tear everything apart." Tom thought for a moment before he continued. "Gentlemen, we are about to make history, here and now is a moment which our system will feel the effect of for generations."
"Quit the gravitas Tommy, we all know this is big. What we have to do is go public and…."
"No." Tom interrupted. "We need to do something first. Before we go public we have something else to accomplish."
"And that would be?"
"Secession."
There was a long period of silence.
"Secession?"
"Yes, secession." Tom repeated. "The whole planet, and maybe even Scorpia and Libran."
"The whole of Helios Gamma? Are you mad?"
"Maybe, but if we can manage to secede successfully we can use the way the economy is set up to pressure both worlds into joining us. Add in an appeal to order and stability and the Librans are virtually guaranteed to join without hesitation."
"And how exactly are we supposed to succeed? The moment we declare independence a fleet from Tauron would be on our roof 'restoring order'."
Tom straightened himself, taking a moment to think.
"I'll talk to the Earthers about it the next time they come by. They may be able to help us more than they already have."
"I don't know Tom." The man who hasn't spoken us stated. "We're already technically conspiring to commit treason. Asking for their help, in light of recent events, may turn off a lot of people if it were to be learned."
"Then we won't tell anyone about it." Tom stated flatly.
Cylon Colony, high above "New Aschen"
New Aschen nebula
Administrator Morit loved his new assignment. With a hundred basestars in orbit, and several times that number of ships dedicated to mining, refining, producing or communications, there was always something which needed his attention.
"Sir, we have a message from the surface." One of the eights informed him.
"Put it up."
On the screen, the unfocused image of a six appeared.
"Sir, the ar-a seem- to have mu-h ha—her climate then or-ally believed, the - seems to be better than exp—ected howev-."
"The requirements where for fertile land and suitable terrain for habitation, is that an issue?"
"Ye- -ir it is."
"Good, then start the settlement. This system is the fallback point for the whole of the Aschen, if need be I want us to be able to house all our people here in only one cycle. Do I make myself clear?"
"-es sir."
"Good. And get a few centurions to get the new comm. tower up. The static is a great annoyance. Over and out."
Fallback was a simple mission, to use the Cylon assets which had been assembled to create a viable colony for the Aschen people. With how things where playing out, within a cycle the settlement would be capable of handling the civilian Aschen population, with basic industry. By the second cycle expansion of the settlement would outpace the ability of the reproduction chambers to grow the population, allowing for more resources to be put towards infrastructure and advancing the Aschen tech base. By the fifth cycle it was expected that basic plasma weapons and shield technology could be produced, with the return to their true technology being finished by the twelfth cycle.
The new society of the Aschen people was taking shape, with the Aschen at the top, the humanoid Cylons on the center, and centurions at the bottom.
New Aschen had been a logical location for this new society. Found while the migrant fleet searched for a new home, it would have been settled already had the Cylons not been found before a proper plan was set. With the discovery of the machine race and subsequently the humans who built them, the planet was left on its own, the communications and sensor problems the nebula produced being considered too much of a hassle.
Now, with the destruction of Earth and pacification of the Colonials in doubt, the Cylons had been moved from producing more of themselves and refined ores to putting the ores to use.
It wasn't the most ideal situation, moving the planed center of the new Aschen Confederation from a system of a dozen habitable worlds to one which held one which barely held life, but the plan was a fallback after all. There was still a possibility it wouldn't be necessary, after all.
Area 51
New Mexico
The facility wasn't what it used to be. Back in the height of cold war and in the days when the stargate was still secret, the base was filled with funds to build new toys like the world was ending. Usually because it was. But with the creation of new organizations around the globe coupled with the reformation of existing ones, the old air base was a shadow of its former self. Where once dozens, sometimes hundreds of projects where being worked on, now only had three. Reverse engineering of an Ori beam weapon, a colonial jump drive, and the reconstruction of a monstrosity the ground pounders used. It was important work, but it wasn't the life-or-death development the base had once been responsible for, most of those projects being handled in Atlantis.
With all this in mind, it was with great annoyance the base's commander was informed that someone many considered an embodiment of the changing times would be coming on his base. Miracles, mutants, gifted, he didn't care what people called them, they were abominations in his mind.
Which was why he was happy to learn that the boy seemed to want to take the only one on his base off his hands.
"So let me get this straight, you want to take her off my hands for some mission half way across the galaxy?"
"Yes sir, that's the order straight from Director O'neill himself." Jon replied.
"And this will be for how long?"
"A few days, a week at the most. Long before the reactivation tests are set to occure."
The commander sighed quietly. It wasn't the 'get out and stay out' he was hoping for, but some time was better than none. Without hesitation he signed off the transfer papers.
Jon took the papers, saluted, and was dismissed. The commander waited for the boy to be gone before he spoke again.
"Freak."
Jon didn't hear him, his legs taking him to the base's residential area. It took a good few minutes to find his destination, but he eventually reached it.
The location was a small one story house. It seemed more like an apartment missing neighbours then a house, but it was definitely the one he was looking for.
He spent a long moment staring at the door, nervous about proceeding. Taking a deep breath, he walked up to the door. A moment before he knocked on the door, it opened. Seeing empty space where a person should have been, Jon looked down to see red eyes looking back.
"Hello Mei, is your sister home?"
The little girl nodded her head in affirmation. Her expression was blanc, which creped Jon out slightly.
"Alright, and where is she? I need to talk to her, it's important."
The girl didn't say anything, only walking deeper into the house and knocking on one of the doors.
"Yes what is it Mei, I'm in the mid…" The girl who came out of the bathroom stopped as she spotted the visitor. Garnering only a towel, her red eyes looked over the boy for a few long seconds.
"You're letting out the cold air." She finally said, heading to her room.
"Hello to you too." Jon stated sarcastically as he closed the entrance door. Setting himself down on the couch, Mei returned in front of him with two juice boxes in hand, one outstretched towards him.
"Thanks Mei, it's ungodly hot in this part of the world." After accepting the drink, there was a long silence as neither spoke. The boy sat in silence as the young girl watched the television with fascination. The program was a broadcast of super sentai, the girl clearly a fan of the show or at least interested enough to sit down and watch it. It wasn't until both where done their boxes that the silence was broken.
"I assume you're here on business. You would have called if it was anything else." The girl said as she entered the living room, now wearing a set of civilian clothes.
"I could have made this threw a call, but I wanted to be here in person for it." Jon explained. "It's about Mary; she's trapped behind enemy lines."
"I don't see how that requires me, or you for that matter. She can handle herself until a ship transports her away." The girl took a seat between the boy and the young girl.
"It's not that simple. If she followed protocol, and given it's Mary that's a pretty big 'if', then he would be in a completely different continent by now then her Avalon, which means far away from her fighter's beacon." As he spoke, Jon unconsciously placed his arm around the girl's shoulder after she started to lean on him. "It's a simple mission, shouldn't take more than a few days. Just you, me, an SG team and a 304 for the trip."
"I assume my agreeing is only a formality and that it's an order."
"It is."
The girl nestled closer to the boy.
"There is always another mission for us." The girl lamented.
"Maybe, but that's our lot in life." Jon stopped for a moment as he kissed the girl's forehead. "We will be leaving tomorrow at 0500 standard time."
"You think I may be able to get some time off after this mission?"
"I hope so Rei, I hope so."
Neither spoke for some time after that, the only noise coming from the television.
Cavern on Kotari Island
Picon
"Why the hell would the thing be here?" Fredric asked. The cave was fairly large, its mouth a good twenty meters wide. The angle of the hole going into the ground was pretty low, meaning that if the craft had landed there it would have been going much slower than an aircraft its size should.
"General order, any hole, nook or cranny large enough to hid in needs to be searched, no exception." Pat replied. He turned on a flashlight and started to make his way into the cave, Fredric close behind.
"Ah man, it'd going to take a week to get the bat shit smell out of these boots."
"Shut up Fred, this ain't any worst then that time we were in Aquaria."
"Yeah, only because we were knee high in a different animal's shit, and it was freezing. I tell you I'm never going to that ice planet ever again. How anyone can call that planet home is beyond me."
"Well not many do, we have more people in Picon Station then that whole planet."
"Yeah, well it's not like…" Fredric stopped as a loud clacking sound echoed through the cave. "Ah son of a Virgo street walker."
"You alright? What the hell did you hit?"
The two looked up; pointing their flashlights to see what had been hit. What they found was pink painted metal. The area of impact was a low hanging part of the fuselage.
"How the hell did we miss that?"
"You mean how did YOU miss that, I was following you."
"Wait, when we came in here I was the one following you."
"Yeah, well it doesn't matter. I'll stay here in case the pilot's still around, you go back and radio base. If we're lucky this could mean a promotion."
Before Fred could do as ordered, the aircraft's engines roared to life. It took only a few moments for the craft to leave the cave, flying low above the Picon countryside and later ocean to avoid radar detection.
By the time the two soldiers had picked themselves up, cleaned off enough bat droppings to find the buttons on their radios and contact their base, the Avalon had already found a new hole to hide in. Patrols were diverted to the south east continent, but for now the aircraft was hidden.
Planet Horathis
Border world between the Free Jaffa Nation and Trade Coalition
The space around the planet was a scene of tension. The planet, a FJN world, had little in way of resources that where valued that other worlds didn't have. What it did have, however, was an Al'Kesh shipyard. Both sides wanted it, the few shipyards of its kind left after the Jaffa rebellion to be left intact. Its lose would have been irreplaceable to both nations, neither having the knowledge base to fix any damage done.
Both sides had over a dozen Ha'tak in orbit ready in case anything happened. On the surface the local governor was negotiating with both sides, trying his best to keep his majority human world out of the line of fire.
Long before the negotiations came to an end, an Al'Kesh that seemed to be in the Trade Coalition's ranks fired on a Free Jaffa Ha'tak. Before anyone realized what was happening eighteen Ha'tak lay in ruin, the Free Jaffa on the retreat and the Trade Coalition gaining a new world.
The mission was a partial success. Both the Free Jaffa and he Trade Coalition had lost most of their fleets, relations where worst then before, but unlike what would have been the typical human reaction no war began.
The Lucian agent didn't care either way, he was paid to get them to fight each other, not to start a war. He only hoped his benefactors would hire him again, the Tok'Ra paid much better than most after all.
The mercenary checked his contracts. His next job was to steal an FTL device from the Cyrannus system for the Free Jaffa. There was a slight risk they may shoot him on sight, but the pay was too much to skip on, and it was just a job hazard.
Getting Jaffa to kill each other, stealing from primitives, working for both sides in a conflict that hadn't started.
Typical day in the life of a Lucian mercenary.
"Earlier today the HMCS Bonaventure left Nova Scotia, returning to operations after taking damage earlier this month when repelling an alien invasion. No mention has been made as to the ships current or future missions; however it is widely believed that it will partake in missions against the Colonials. The Colonials, or Colonies of Kobol as they are officially known, where responsible for the attempted invasion on Earth which damaged the Bonaventure. Their invasion marks the third attempt this year by aliens to invade our world, the other two having landed in New Mexico and Japan before being repelled. Due to the recent increase in both frequency and intensity of invasion attempts, the Council has approved of a twenty percent budget increase to both planetary and interplanetary forces, and is currently in talks to extend the highschool basic training program from four to eight weeks globally." –CTV National News
Author's Notes: well, that chapter took a few more rewrites then I hoped it would, and I'm still not perfectly happy with what I got. But it is what it is, next chapter involves the rescue mission for Mary and a few other things.
