Chapter 9 The Differences

The streets of New Caprica was filled with a mixture of fear and hope the Tauron citizens had heard of a so called Spartan and what Noble Six had done to the colonials. Now people where whispering that this was a sign from the Gods that the Cylons would soon be defeated. The link to Earth wasn't openly shared so there was many stories about where the so called Spartan came from. Some thought the Gods had sent him to deliver them from the Cylons, while others believed the Spartan was a new kind of centurion that had rebelled against the Cylons and now they couldn't contain them. Only a small group thought that the Spartan was from Earth.

Walking through the streets where now three times as many Centurions walked the streets so much so that Galen couldn't walk more than a hundred yards before passing a centurion or a pair of Police Officers. Suddenly a load boom filled the air as smoke rose from the pumping station. Galen didn't flinch he already knew it was a suicide attack; he shook his head he hated what Tigh was doing to bring down the Cylons. He stopped at the corner and looked toward a dog; there right at his feet was an overturned yellow food bowel. Galen smiled as he walked inside and pulled open a draw from a cabinet only to find some documents waiting for him, his source inside Baltar's administration had given again.

Unknown to him or anyone else in New Caprica City on a small rise hiding almost the trees lied a man in green armor with a sniper rifle in hand. Over his body was a ghillie Suit which hid him from view.

"Looks like another explosion." said the Marine Sniper as he adjusted his scope.

"That is the third one in three days." said his spotter as the he crawled toward his partner with a sandwich in hand.

"Ya." said the sniper as he took a bit from his food.

"Identified any key people?" asked the spotter

"I think." said the sniper "Take a look at grid four by the red post."

"The blonde hair woman?" asked the spotter as he held a pair of binoculars up to his eyes.

"Ya." said the sniper

"Well she is hot." stated the Spotter as suddenly two more identical copies of the woman walked up to the first. "Triplets….now I see what you're thinking Zack."

"That would be fun, strike that very fun but no, check grid 5 by the food stand." said Zack as he moved his sniper rifle toward the market. There where another set of blonde hair bombshells.

"Ok that is weird." said the Spotter

"Ya." answered Zack "And that isn't all I got seven people who I keep seeing constantly and the rest of the people really seem to hate them."

"The ruling class?" asked Zack's spotter

"Possibly." said Zack as he looked toward the sports field to see a bunch of guys playing a game that they hadn't seen before. "However I think I am finally getting the rules of this game."

"I thought you hate sports?" asked the spotter

"That doesn't matter, what matters is that they are talking about over throwing these Cylons things." answered Zack as his spotter looked at him

"How could you possibly know that?"

"I can read lips." answered Zack

"So we know where to find the resistance." said the spotter

"More than that….I think I found some of the leaders of the resistance." said Zack "They guy with a half way broken jaw and a fully broken nose."

"Brown hair with tattoo on right arm?" asked the spotter

"Ya." answered Zack "He and the old man with only one eye seem to be the ring leaders."

"Should I send a message back?" asked the spotter as Zack checked his watch.

"Sure... we have only an hour until our scheduled update might as well get the stuff to the higher ups." stated Zack as he pulled a small computer chip from the gun before handing it to the spotter "And when you come back bring some more water I am almost out."

"Sure." said the spotter as he crawled away back to the armored personal carrier which was well hidden under some camouflage nets. The vehicle was a more advanced form of the Stryker. Standing around the vehicle taking their break was another sniper team and a squad of six regular marines

Back onboard the Gates of Valhalla Starbuck's head was spinning as she tried to process the information that this man was telling her, if what he was saying was true then their cousins had been though Hades. They had raged a war with a collection of alien races for almost twenty five years and it was a war that they were slowly losing.

"Then they struck Reach, our fortress amongst the stars." said Tyler "Reach was the base of operation for entire fleet."

"Like Picon Station." said Starbuck as Tyler raised an eyebrow "It was home to our fleet headquarters."

"I see, well Reach was an entire planet with around 2/3 of the entire planet decanted to the military. Huge factories making every kind of weapon, military training camps and giant ship yards that covered hundreds of miles." said Tyler "The covenant destroyed it all….this ship is likely among the last to get off world but millions of people died."

"By the Gods." said Starbucks

"That was over 20 years ago but it was like yesterday for me." said Tyler as Starbuck as she looked at the man he looked maybe 30 so he had to be 10 when the battle happened.

"You where a kid?" asked Starbuck

"No…I didn't finished we crash landed here and then most of the population went into crosleep." explained Tyler "People are still waking up at the moment, some still wounded from the battle with the covenant."

"So Earth may be gone?" asked Kara

"It's a possibly with Reach gone most of our military making capacity has been destroyed." stated Tyler "With Reach gone nothing stood between the Covenant and Earth. That being said Earth was the most heavily defended planet in the UNSC."

"But you can lead us to it?" asked Starbuck

"Sorry but no, we have what is call the Cole Protocal we can't lead any none UNSC ship to any UNSC planet in order to protect the safety of Earth and the population centers of humanity." said Tyler

"WHAT THE FRAK!" yelled Starbuck as she jumped to her feet her face red with rage "We have been searching for you and you can't help us."

"Can you wait a second….there is a clause in the Cole Protocal that if high command approves we can bring you to the UNSC." Said Tyler as Starbuck's instantly calmed down. "We would have to make contact with the UNSC and if they approve we can bring you back to the UNSC."

"Can you do that?" asked Starbuck

"We are unable to do that at the moment, for one thing we have lost our long range Slipspace transmitting beacons." said Tyler "And that is on top of the fact we have no idea where in the galaxy we are. We could be right on the edge of the UNSC space or on the other side of the galaxy."

"Galactica would know that." stated Starbuck as Tyler raised an eyebrow "It's one of our two remaining warships if you can get a hold of them you can find the location of Earth and send the message?"

"It would be up to the captain but I don't see why not." said Tyler as the door opened as a female UNSC marine entered the room carrying a small computer pad.

"These just came in from the sniper team and the captain wants her to identify people." Stated the marine

"These are right off the gun camera?" asked Tyler

"Of course." said the woman "Also Mass is at nine tomorrow."

"Thanks for finding that out for me." said Tyler but wishing she hadn't brought up religion.

"Mass?" asked Starbuck

"A religious ceremony." explained Tyler as turned the pad over to the Kara. "Now we need you to tell me everyone you can in these photos."

Meanwhile onboard Galactica William Adama sat in a cell but it had become home to the only humanoid Cylon in the fleet and the only person Adama felt he could trust, a model eight Cylon named Sharon Athena Agathon.

"More?" asked Athena as she held up a small pitcher full of water.

"No….I am good." said Adama

"So you said ten Baseships." said Athena as Adama nodded his head.

"We can't handle ten Baseships and they are not leaving." stated Adama as Athena raised an eyebrow. "Is something wrong?"

"it's just to have ten ships guarding the planet would be a high number given the fact that they would require so many ships to send supplies from the 12 colonies to New Caprica." Said Athena

"You think they are using parts from our home to supply New Caprica?" asked Adama

"More than likely." stated Athena "You said they had trucks on the ground now?"

"Yes." said Adama "The Cylons must have brought them."

"They could also be bringing raw material and other goods as long as it is radiation levels where low enough." added Athena as she looked into her glass of water "However that would take a lot of ships running supplies back and forth, not counting the time it takes to find, load and unload the supplies. That is on top of finding the supplies the Cylons themselves need to keep going. Ten ships is overkill."

"So the question is why would they do that?" asked Adama

"Ya." said Athena as she looked into the Admiral's eyes "There has to be something and you know what it is."

"There is but I can't bring myself to believe it." said the Admiral as he handed the paper over to Athena.

"A Spartan?" asked Athena

"If you believe the legends they are warriors that could send the Gods themselves to their knees and Galen thinks that this Spartan may be a warrior of the 13th Tribe." said Adama "However we never detected any ship in orbit and we have been watching for months."

"A stealth ship maybe?" asked Athena

"Possible." said Adama "But still I find it almost impossible that a Spartan would appear now."

"Don't you believe that the Gods would send him?" asked Athena

"Maybe." said Adama as he slowly adjusted his glasses "I have become less of a believer though this event."

"I don't really know Admiral but what I do know is that whether it be the Gods of man or the God of Cylons or something else pulling the strings that the only thing we can truly control is our own actions." stated Athena as Adama smiled.

"Thank you." said Adama

Meanwhile under the very streets of New Caprica the resistance leaders gathered as the sun started setting over the horizon.

"So what does your insider have for us today?" asked Sam as he rubbed his still hurting jaw, his nose had been broken by the Spartan.

"Well it's about the Spartan." said Galen as the lights shock a bit like they did every time a vehicle rolled over their heads.

"What about him?" asked Sam

"Him, we don't know what the frak that thing is." stated Saul

"Well it seems that something called the Cylon Hybrid warned the Cylons that a Spartan would rise to lead humanity back to the stars." said Galen "basically they are scared of him and that is why they have been dropping so many heavy raiders full of Centurions."

"How many are we up too now?" asked Saul

"From the people watching the space port over 15 heavy raiders full of centurions have landed." said Sam "That is 150 extra centurions and that isn't counting the heavy raiders full of heavy weapons. Motors, missiles one even thought he saw at least a pair of Ground Cyclops maybe more." (Tanks)

"All this to take down a single thing." said Galen

"It doesn't fraken matter because of that thing there is now more Cylons than ever here." Snapped Saul "It fraked up everything, I hope they destroy each other.

At that very moment Noble Six walked through the Gates of Valhalla until he reached a large metal door. With a few presses of the computer panel on the wall, once that was done the door shot open as Noble Six stepped into the room, closing the door behind him locking it the moment it his the ground. His eyes scanned the room to see six beds built into the walls. Along the wall where six out covers each with different stands built in, slowly Noble Six walked over to the first stand before twisting off his helmet placing it on the very top stand. He knew the drill this was a room designed to hold a six man Spartan team during the rare time they had off. They may be Spartan but they were still human which meant they still required bunk time even it was only around two hours a night. Even the armor had limitations, needing to be powered off from time to time so the power source could either be replaced or recharged. Slowly he did what every Spartan knew he had to do but what they all hated. Spartans where well known to keep to themselves and not allowing the general people not even other marines from seeing them outside their armor. Finally Noble Six placed stepped out of his shoes as his normal feet touched the ground. Slowly he reached into his side pouch of his armor. In his hands he held three pairs of dog tags.

Flashback

"Listen Reach has been good to me. Time has come to repay the favor." said Jorge as he grabbed Noble Six hand passing the dog tag to him. "Don't deny me this."

Noble Six looked into the eyes of the Spartan II as he carried him toward the shield door.

"Tell'em to make it count." stated Jorge as he tossed Noble Six out the shield door and away from the Covenant Corvette on a one way trip to take out a Super Carrier over Reach.

End Flashback

Noble Six looked at Jorge's dog tag in his hands before looking toward the another one of the tags.

Flashback

"A sniper why is it always a sniper." said the shotgun wielding member of Noble Team, Emile as they stood in the fallout shelter of ONI tower in New Alexandria. Kneeling beside the body of their fallen teammate was Noble Six.

"At least she died quickly." Stated Carter as he looked down at Kat, they had been teammates since training and now she was gone.

"Commander Pelican is coming in." stated Jun as the team sniper looked toward their leader.

"Alright, we have to complete our mission." said Carter

"What do we do with her?" asked Jun

"After dropping us off the pelican will take her somewhere where she can rest." said Carter as he lied not only to his team but to himself. They all knew that more than likely her armor would be stripped and reused, it was too valuable to waste. Her body would be destroyed no Spartan could be KIA only MIA.

"Understood." said Noble Six as he reached to a small compartment in the armor where all Spartans kept their dog tags.

"What are you collecting them now?" asked Emile.

"That is enough." stated Carter as Emile walked away. Once he was out of the way he turned back to Noble Six "Keep them, be our recorder."

"Yes, sir." Answered Noble Six

End flashback

Noble Six ran his fingers over Kat's tags there was still a little flecks of her blood on it as he placed her tag next to Jorge's on a nearby table. Finally he looked toward the last of the tags.

Flashback

The roar of the Pillar of Autumn's engines filled the air as Noble Six stood on the platform where his fellow Spartan had fallen. For a moment he just stood there watching the cruiser fly into safety, once it had disappeared into the sky Noble Six moved toward the body of his fallen teammate. On either side of him were elites as blood spilled out from the sword wound. Slowly Noble Six pulled Emile's dog tags as the sound of breathing filled the air. He turned his head to his left to see the elite that Emile had dove his Kukri knife into. The Elite's eyes where looking at Noble Six with pure hate. The Elite was still alive but unable to move as blood poured from his wound.

Noble Six he reached for the handle of the kukri before pulling driving it deeper into the elite's neck killing the elite. Once life had left his eyes he took the knife back out before placing it back in Emile's hands.

End Flashback

Noble Six placed the tags of three of four of his fallen teammates side by side on the table.

"I will make it count for all of you." stated Noble Six as he lied down on the bed the lights turning off almost instantly.

Well I hope you liked this chapter and the scenes I added between Noble Team. Also I added a new Halo Vehicle because it makes sense in any military to have an APC. I would like to thank everyone who reviewed and I ask that you keep on reading. Thanks Wilkins75.