"So let me see if I understand what you're saying, commander. This alien object was found floating in a million pieces in orbit of a gas giant, and after your chief engineer failed to put it back together it did so on its own." The vice admiral said, repeating the explanation he had been given. The gate was propped upright in the storage bay, well always from anything of value. Just in case.
"Yes sir, that is what happened." Adama replied.
"You know Bill, I'd have you and your crew looked over if that wasn't the third craziest thing I've heard today."
"Sir?"
"Courier came by a few hours before you got back. Seems Caprica City was attacked by something people are calling a 'Titan'. I think that's a bit of a stretch, but whatever it was it wasn't human."
"A titan? As in the beings who birthed the gods?"
"Yes, that's exactly why I'm skeptical. But that's only the second craziest thing I've been told today."
"And the first is what?"
"That apparently these 'Titans' or whatever they are are common on Earth."
Adama gave a quiet laugh at that comment. "And who's saying that?"
"Intel down below. Seems the Earthers have chronicled the stories of past beings like the one that attacked Caprica. 'Rangers of power' and 'The Lightning' seem to be their version of the 'Caprican Line'."
"We both know how accurate that show was." Adama replied. The Caprican line had been a dramatization of the final battle over Caprica during the war. It was a typical war series, characters that were based on but not actually real people finding love in the darkest hour. The show hadn't meant to be more than a single season, but the Cancerons loved it enough to give it twelve seasons and two spin off series.
"Maybe, but even if it's only accurate in broad strokes then we need to change the way we see soldiers. Even…" The vice admiral stopped as the facility started to shake. "The hell was that?"
Before he could get an answer, the alien device started to move.
Romeo Site
Gate room
"I'm sorry sir; I missed the address by one chevron." The base's gate operator apologised.
"Well then cancel it and try again, only this time do it right." The base commander replied.
"Sir, wait, the gate is trying to connect. We might have something." Jonathan stated.
"What are you talking about O'neill, we've tried all the near-Earth combinations. There's nothing out there that could possibly…" The commander stopped as the point of origin was locked and a stable connection established. It only took a moment for the commander to regain his composure. "Alright, send a single through. You might have been wrong and dialed Earth like you were supposed to."
"I'm not getting a response, if that's Earth then no one's home."
The room was quiet for a long moment as they all contemplated the implications of what was before them.
"Security team to the gate room, this is not a drill. Armory, prepare MALP for unscheduled mission." The commander announced over the base intercom. He hadn't even finished his order when soldiers where already taking position in front of the gate.
"Hey Jonny, what the hell's going on?" Jeff asked, almost running into O'neill as the two entered a locker room.
"Tried to gate to Earth, screwed one of the points up and still got a connection." Jonathan explained as he frantically put on his combat equipment.
"How is that even possible?"
"Don't know, but evidently it is." He paused to tighten his helmet. "Besides, since when does something being possible stopped anything in this job?"
"Point taken."
It was a testament to the training of the old SGC and now SWORD that in five minutes flat an unprepared recon mission was ready before the gate. It was something which came with the territory, a new problem could show up at any time and possibly change the balance of power in the galaxy, and being ready to solve that problem in five minutes or in six minutes after it showed up could mean the difference between life and death.
The mission was as simple as it was spontaneous, send the MALP threw the gate, see what was on the other side, and if need be send SG14 and any other needed soldiers threw.
In the gate control room there was a tense silence as the recon machine crossed the event horizon.
"MALP is through; it should be reaching its destination… now."
All attention was one a lone screen as an image started to form. The expectations where usually for one of things: something old, abandoned, usually Egyptian looking, or a forest which looked suspiciously like those of British Columbia.
What they found in this case was neither. Instead it was a simple storage room with two dozen soldiers which could be mistaken for their own holding weapons which were just as identical as theirs.
"What am I looking at?" The commander asked to no one in particular.
"Well sir it seems to be industrial society, maybe on a level within fifty years of our own technologically." The gate operator said. "Wait, those uniforms are Colonial. If the colonials have a base that close to Earth then…"
"Get a fix on their location, then implement preservation protocol."
"Yes sir."
Ceti Anchorage
The odd alien device had just sat there for a few minutes, an odd glowing liquid like wall inside of it. The soldiers had been called quickly, the action taken as a possible incursion within the station. Unsure of what to do, the seconds turned to minutes as the soldiers stood ready in case something where to appear.
On the fifth minute something did. A machine, clearly remote controlled, came through the device.
"Uh, sir, what should we do?" One of the soldiers asked. The machine had made no hostile moves, but its presence was quite unannounced.
"I don't know." The platoon leader hadn't been trained for this. Possible alien contact was not in his job description.
"Wait, that symbol, doesn't it represent Earth?" One of the soldiers asked, gesturing towards a marking on its side.
"Oh frak, light it up boys. Don't let them find this place." The order was being followed before the order was even finished.
The MALP was hit on all sides as it slowly moved back towards the gate. Two of its tired where blown out and its camera destroyed, but it reached the gate and was disintegrated by the event horizon. Two of the soldiers mad e the foolish mistake of trying to follow, the platoon leader quickly ordering them to stand their ground. The connection was lost, nothing remaining of the machine and two men who had followed it.
The silence was deafening, no one sure what to do or say. The vice admiral, who had been witness to the incursion, simply walked over to one of the station's comm. lines.
"CIC, general message for all departments. Scorched Earth is in effect, we're bugging out. The Earthers know we're here." As the admiral set down the phone, alarms sounded off in the distance. "Commander Adama."
"Sir."
"You are to take these objects back to the colonies. No escorts, just jumping back as fast as the ship can handle it. Take these men with you, and keep interactions with these things to those who already know about it as much as possible. If this is what I think it is, this could turn the war in our favour. Is that understood?"
"Yes sir."
Romeo Site
"Did we get a fix?"
"Uh, we got it to within one point three billion kilometers."
The commander sighed. "Alright, dial up Earth. We're already behind our regular call home."
Mess Hall 8
The Peak
Mary placed down her latest empty cup, her companions watching with a mix of horror and curiosity.
"Oh god I needed that." She cried in joy. The empty cup joined its seven sisters.
"How is it humanly possible for one person to drink that much tea?" Jon asked to himself.
"Cap you don't understand, that planet didn't have any of this stuff." Mary replied, starting another cup.
"You weren't even there for a week."
"I know, I thought I was going to die if I went another few days without this stuff."
Rei turned her head in confusion. "I wasn't aware that the British required tea to survive."
The comment got a laugh out of the two pilots.
"Pilots, code 4, pilots, code 4." The station's intercom system announced.
"Well that's us. Sorry Rei looks like we won't be seeing you off." Mary said apologetically as she got up from her seat.
"Sorry Rei, I really did want to see you off…" Job was interrupted by Rei putting her hand over his mouth.
"I will always be a single teleportation away. Go." Jon nodded at the order, turned around, then turned back towards her and gave her a quick kiss.
"I'll see you next chance I get leave." With that he ran off, leaving the ground pounder by herself.
As the two pilots ran down the corridor, Mary couldn't help but laugh.
"What's so funny?" Jon asked, dodging an NCO who had almost not gotten out of his way in time.
"You are. You're like a lost puppy whenever you're around her." Mary couldn't hide her grin with her tone of voice.
"Oh please, it's not that bad." Jon's only reply was Mary making the sound of a whip as she moved her hand back and forth. "Up yours Mary."
The rest of their run was quiet as the pair ran from corridor to corridor, passing station crewmen and eventually catching up to 302 pilots who were running in the same direction as they were. It took them a good two or three minutes but the pilots eventually reached their destination, the 304 hanger bay.
The station had a significant portion of its mass dedicated to a hanger bay which housed two such craft, ready to respond to something in a moment's notice. The reasoning behind the hanger was, when the station was built, to prevent the ships from risking collisions with satellites while in orbit. Today that was a moot point due to the general order dictating five 304 remain in orbit at any given time. Now it served as the rapid response unit, two ships ready to leave on a dime that where fully stocked for supplies in the event something unforeseen happened.
By the time the pilots and most of the crew who had been station-side reached the ships, the bay's doors where well underway to opening, the air kept in by force fields.
Less than five minutes after the first call went out, the two ships were on their way past the moon and into hyperspace.
Ceti Anchorage
CIC
The evacuation was going off in a timely manner. It was just under an hour since the Earther's had send their machine through the device. So far the first wave of evacs had been handled. All top priority items, the irreplaceable alien technology and the tens of thousands of hours of transmission recordings from intelligence, had been placed on the Galactica. A dozen other ships had second-level materials stockpiled into them, supplies and easy to move equipment that would be expensive to replace if lost. Third-level items, which they suspected they wouldn't reach, where consumables which were easy to replace. Fourth level, which they knew for a fact they couldn't reach, was stripping the station of everything. As of yet no evacuation ever reached that far in Colonial history, and as the Dradis found two unknown contacts.
"All ships launch vipers, all hands drop what you're doing and get to the evac raptors. Clock is set to fifteen." The admiral announced over the station's intercom. With his order finished he placed a key in a small hole and turned it. A moment later he pushed the red button next to the key without hesitation. Next to the button a mechanical timer started counting down from fifteen minutes. "Alright people, bug out."
The CIC's crew obeyed as they quickly left the area for one of the four ships that where docked with the station, their purpose being for just this situation.
Far outside the station, a tense standoff had started to form. The two 304s where on the move, both traveling in erratic patterns that where impossible to predict to avoid a repeating of the situation with the other ships before them which had been lost. The 302s took a defensive position around the ships, the two Avalons also standing in the void between the two fleets.
On the Colonial side, hundreds of vipers stood between the station and the Earther ships, keeping a fair distance from one another in the event the area of effect anti-fighter weapons where used once more. Neither side moved towards the other, both fleets hesitant to throw the first stone.
What happened next was something most, if not all, on both sides did not expect.
"This is Vice Admiral Joana to Earth fleet, I request a temporary cease in hostilities between out fleets while we evacuate out station." Admiral Joana had sent the Pegasus in the first wave of the evacuation for just this situation. This situation was incredibly delicate; he couldn't have Cain fraking it up with her aggressive tendencies.
The silence over the airwaves was deafening for the pilots on both sides of the line, all anxious to hear the response. It was a long minute before they received it.
"This is Captain Havor of the HMCS Bonaventure, your request is being granted." The response lead to an odd situation where both fleets kept their distance from each other, neither doing anything provocative in an attempt to keep the temporary peace which had been agreed on. With only a minute to go before the station's nuclear weapons detonated, the colonial fleet jumped away, to the first of several jumps to the next station.
The twin 304s tried to salvage the station, but neither could get a lock on the station's missiles before they went critical, vaporizing most of the station while leaving the rest useless as anything other than scrape metal that wasn't worth the effort to bring home.
With their mission complete and nothing of value remaining in the area, the two ships left for home, leaving the void empty once more.
Gemon Liners 613
Void between Helios Alpha and Helios Beta
"How are the passengers doing?" The captain asked one of the stewardesses. He was worried about potential unrest due to it being a particularly long run they were on, a twenty hour direct flight.
"Some of the children are acting like kids always do, and one of the passengers keep getting up because of restless legs, but apart from that it's a pretty quiet all things considered." She replied, offering him a coffee.
"Thanks." He said as he accepted the cup. He only took a one sip before distancing the cup from his face. "Gods, we make people pay for this stuff? This is even worst then the stuff my wife buys."
"Well, maybe she's trying to poison you?" She asked rhetorically. They both had quick laugh at the comment, one of the perks of both working on the same ship. They'd spent the last decade on the 613, doing the Caprica-Virgon run four times a week. It was only natural for relationships to form, and as such companies had long ago stopped trying to prevent them.
As the captain contemplated distracting his wife from work for a few more minutes, a small buzzing noise grabbed his attention. It was one which the cockpit used to gain the attention of the crew while not alerting passengers. If any herd it the excuse was the intercom producing the noise at random intervals. Whatever the reason was, the captain was needed in the cockpit.
"What's the matter?" The captain took his seat and took control from the co-pilot.
"There's a ship following us, about eight hundred clicks behind us. I'm not getting an IFF reading and they aren't responding to standard comm. signals." The co-pilot explained.
"How long has it been there?"
"About five minutes now. The thing, whatever it is, just seems to be keeping its distance."
"Could be an echo, might just be the dradis picking ourselves up." The captain thought out loud. "Try changing our course by five degrees."
As they changed the course, the mystery object followed suit.
"Alright it might just be an echo, but just to be sure let's try something more complicated."
The captain changed course again, this time changing the pitch as well as the direction. Space was three dimensional after all. Observing the dradis, the mystery craft again took the same path as they had.
"Well that settles it; it's probably just an echo. Send a data burst to tower back home telling them about this and prep for dradis reset."
With that a signal was sent back to the ship's home port on Caprica informing them of the events taking place, the signal itself would take eight hours to reach the planet.
"Beginning reset in 3, 2, 1, mark." On the co-pilot's mark the dradis went blank, resetting itself after. It took a few moments to return, but when it did the mystery craft was gone.
"Alright, send a second burst telling…" The captain's order was interrupted by the proximity alarm going off. "The frak is that?"
"Right beneath us, twenty meters." The co-pilot shouted. "Ten meters. Five meters."
The ship had a lone sudden vibration.
"Contact with unknown object."
"Frak, Mayday, mayday this is Gemon L 613, we are under attack by pirates. Requesting immediate assistance." The captain knew his call for help was meaningless. Help would be hours away even if they had been within range of a listening station. Without one being active on their route help would be even further away. The event was a shock in and of itself, the pirate clans had been destroyed over two decades before. What little piracy remained tended to target any ship foolish enough to travel between the Alpha-Beta and Gamma-Delta binary subsystems alone.
The attention of the two pilots was drawn behind them as the sound of a scream filled the ship. The stewardess ran into the cabin, a panicked look on her face.
"Something's in the cargo bay."
"Ah frak." The captain lamented. "Gemon L 613, we have been boarded, repeat we have been boarded."
More shouts could be heard from the passengers. In the back of the ship, a being in odd black armour had forced their way from the cargo bay to the couch class seating area. One of the passengers made the mistake of trying to charge the being, getting a zat for their trouble. The being walked towards the cockpit, not paying attention to anyone around it.
The stewardess locked the cabin closed, but that only slowed the warrior for a moment as it kicked the door down. Neither the pilots nor the stewardess had time to react as the creature knocked them out.
Turning around towards the passengers, the Lucian mercenary sighed. He had hoped the ship was a cargo transport with few in terms of crew. This ship, on the other hand, had few crew but many people. Tying them up would take far longer than he had thought it would, with little in terms of valuables to keep for himself for trade.
Well, he still had a job to do, he thought to himself as he turned back and started zating everyone in sight.
Atlantis, Pacific Ocean
Pier 3
"Ok Shepard, don't think 'blow up', think 'fly to the target THEN blow up'." Rodney explained as he finished setting up three more test drones.
"Hey, it's not my fault your defective toys keep exploding." Shepard shot back as he leaned back in the ancient control chair.
"Yeah, well let's do this right and hope for the best." Rodney's tone betrayed the lack of confidence he was feeling as he stepped away from the drones. "Beginning field test of earth made drones variant twenty two, twenty three and twenty four."
With a single thought to move, two of the drones promptly blew up while the last took to the air and flew towards a target that was floating in the ocean. The final drone almost hit the target, but missed as it fell into the water, then detonated. The target was missed by a over two hundred meters.
"So does that count as improvement?" Shepard asked as the test came to an end.
"Technically yes, though it would have been better if the drone had actually hit the target instead of just blowing up later than the others." Rodney answered. "The fact it didn't blow up right away and moved in the general direction of where we wanted it too should mean we're getting there."
"So how long you think it'll take to get one that actually works?"
"At this rate, about twenty or thirty more tries from now."
"Great."
Temple of Athena, Gemenon
Throne Room
As Catherine sat back in the throne, a dozen sisters where writing down the hundreds of seven symbol combinations. No one was certain what they meant, only that they all ended with the same last one.
"These ones here seem to have the same third and fourth symbol." One of the sisters pointed out to another. "If they are coordinates to something, then it would reason that those mean the general area and the differences in those close to each other are means of getting a more specific location."
"But then why do ones on the opposite sides of the map have similar ones that are just in a different part of the combination?" The other asked. "And why do they all have the same last one?"
One of the Warriors, a younger one, snickered quietly.
"And what is so funny brother?"
"The trouble you're having trying to crack the code." He replied. "Is it not obvious?"
"No, it isn't. Will you enlighten us or shall you simply continue your laughter?" The sister asked in clear annoyance.
"It's simple; the combination represents triangulation on a location using fixed points." He explained. "Three sets of two points to find it on a three dimensional field, any ship's navigator could figure it out."
"And let me guess, you trained as a navigator?"
"Actually yes, I did sister." The Warrior answered with a small smirk.
"Well then, if you're so smart why is the last symbol always the same for all these combinations?"
"That I can't tell." The Warrior replied. "It could mean the galaxy, or it could mean right here. Either way I don't think it makes much difference. What are these things supposed to mean anyway? The location of artifacts left by the gods in other systems?"
"If the high priestess is correct in her translations of the chosen one's Kobal tongue, these could each potentially be a planet." The sister answered.
"But that means…" The warrior's eyes went wide as the implications set in.
"Exactly."
President's Office
Caprica
Adar looked at the report in front of him. The riots on Canceron had been quite large, as was to be expected for the self-proclaimed largest democracy. It had started as a general anti-government protest. Some disliked the war, some disliked policy, some were simply angry, but as was to be expected it turned violent from a spark which no one was sure of the origin of. The riots had been supressed by a crackdown, the planetary police and members of the army restoring order with extreme prejudice.
The end result was the loss of over a hundred law enforcement vehicles, several dozen dead and over a thousand hospitalized.
Adar leaned back as he thought about the consequences of this latest event. There were dozens of protests planned for later that day on all the major worlds. If even a few turned violent…
A knock at the door took him from his thoughts.
"Enter."
The man who came in was the director of Colonial Intelligence.
"Mister President, I have the report you ordered."
"Ah yes, put it on my desk." The report could wait; he had a speech to finalize.
Colonial Intelligence's compiled data on Earth wasn't important at that moment.
"The disappearance of Gemon Liner 613 is believed at this time to be the result of a pirate hijacking. While no demands have been made for ransom this marks the first such attack on the route the ship took in thirty two years. It has long been believed that pirate activity in the Alpha-Beta binary subsystem was a thing of the past, but due to the return of a potential pirate threat the Colonial Navy has been sweeping the route for potential threats, as well as pre-emptively increasing patrols in the rest of the system. Some are speculating that the attack may in fact have been either Cylon or Earther in origin, however the government is affirming that this was most likely pirates due to the tactics used coupled with the ship's captain describing them as such." –Captican News Network
