For any perspective on any stations and ships I mention, such as Tauron's Defense headquarters, go to google Images and type in ships of the Colonial fleet by ICE DRAGON and type in Tauron Defense Headquarters by Ice Dragon. He has pretty good renders of ships and stations mentioned in every Fan fiction and canon source, including his own creative designs.

Picon Orbit

Five Days Post Battle of Leonis.

"As you can all see here a fleet of eight Colonial Defense Forces warships, including three Battlestars, four Cruisers and a Missile Cruiser, all jumped into a high orbit past the defense perimeter of Picon's moon and Fleet Command's Anchorage. From accounts and the few grainy images sent in by our viewers these warships, all of them, appeared to have been heavily damaged. What is more troubling is the accounts that a task force of some twenty warship's some of which are believed to be the very ships witnessed; departed Picon five days ago on an unannounced deployment. These recent developments may coincide with the recent wave of missing ships on the Line and in adjoining sectors outside of the Colonies. The military is not speaking at this time, but one could guess that this may be a wave of attacks tied to the UNSC and the supposed Thirteenth Tribe , however more alarming is the possibility of Cylon activity or even an unknown cause for these events. This is Jan Aderns reporting from Picon, back to you Tom."

Adar nearly put his fist through the flat panel screen in front of him and resisted the urge to crumple the fragile remote in his hands, instead throwing it across his executive cabin at the center of Colonial One as the President of the Colonies took a deep breath and sat down at his desk.

"Frakking press."

Mumbling he wished he had a drink of his family's wine. Keeping secrets in a democracy with a free press was hard, nearly nigh impossible, something he usually praised but in light of recent events made his life even more nightmarish.

Pulling up the report that had caused him to be awoken in the middle of the night and sent him whisked away to the top secret Military Command Station Zero, he slumped into his seat.

Station Zero was a huge facility known only to the Joint Chiefs, the Admiralty board and Adar and a few Cabinet members of his administration. So secret that its building had been carried out under the guise of several projects with its funding hidden away under parts of other government projects.

Station Zero was the most sensitive of all the facilities under control of the CDF. Although the task of running the operations of the Colonial Fleet was carried out at Picon Command and the other twelve separate Defense Headquarter station above each colony, the true inner workings of the Fleet and its assorted Secret and even public projects were carried out here.

Built into one of the larger asteroids that joined others and the four moons that orbited Caprica's and Gemenon's huge gravity well created by the mutual orbit of the two colonies orbit around their central gravitational baycenter, the asteroid had been mined out long ago of all its natural resources, and was but a navigational marker and hazard that the throngs of civilian craft avoided, but was close enough that craft coming and going wouldn't arose suspicion.

As such the still incredibly thick iron chunk of rock that had been almost conveniently hollowed out the Colonial Defense Forces and Colonial Intelligence had come in and carefully built the station under the guise of a research station.

The only visible part of the base on the surface of the asteroid was the small listening post which kept up the guise of a civilian outpost but also served the purpose of holding the an extremely large DRADIS array and the largest most sophisticated Laser communications system ever created, much less designed.

This allowed the station to act as a command and control center for the entire Colonial fleet in the system while remaining perfectly invisible to listening devices and thus unknown. To compensate for the constant movement of the planets and ships, as well as the vast distances even with the speed of light, an array of reflective dishes and small satellites placed at the system's and planet's Lagragian points allowed for communication even around planets and obstacles, and for a constant link with Picon Command. Communication with the rest of the Colonies was dealt with through the same FTL currier system that all the colonies used, except on a smaller and stealthier platform with automated drones.

"Command Zero docking, activating Docking procedures, Opening Bay doors. Welcome to Fleet Command Colonial One." The dockmaster announced as one side of the chunk of rock that was flattened slit apart to reveal huge camouflaged bay doors that opened into a gigantic bay capable of fitting two 800 meter Berserker class cruisers side by side, and a titanic amount of support facilities capable of acting as a full fledged dry dock for any number of craft.

One part of the bay was full with the Colonial Fleet's latest toy.

Stretching to three hundred meters the black clad form of the Colonies' first fully operational Stealth Cruiser, a heavily modified Glaive electronic warfare ship whose hull was covered in a stealth coating and fitted with baffles and angular hull plating in critical areas , sat in the bay as its systems were being completed in secret as the final launch checks were being completed.

Adar had by then moved to the front of the ship and stood behind the two pilots in the cockpit as the president looked into the facility as the comparatively tiny ship slipped through the bay doors which shut with amazing speed given their size.

Adar was still taken aback every time he visited the place as the ship's airlocks gave a dull thud as they latched onto the docking teather.

Adar wasted no time to move to the airlock, waiting for the clamps to seal as the green light lit for pressurization, the president tapping his foot in anticipation.

Opening the airlock himself and not waiting for the Colonial Officers and Marines on the other side, who all saluted and snapped to in surprise in return as the President walked straight down the oversized docking tube towards the man he wanted to see.

"Admiral Nagala. A pleasure to meet you." He spoke as the Admiral shook his hand and the two got the pleasantries out of the way.

Minutes later Adar and Nagala made their way to the heart of the operation, the gigantic command center which appeared more like a mission control center of old pre-unification days as most of the cavernous walls were dominated by four towering viewscreens that gave constant readouts of the Colonial fleet and the ships in the system. The information was provided courtesy of the DRADIS arrays system wide and the huge array on Picon's moon feeding them information.

The myrad of brightly lit consoles were all occupied as men and women of Colonial Intelligence and the Colonial Fleet all glanced up as the President and Nagala walked past, making their way to the briefing room perched above.

Adar took his seat as the other three four Admiral's present along with Nagala, took their seats at the ovalish table and got straight to the point.

"Admiral Kaviss, what is the situation? Don't be shy, I need to know everything."

Kaviss, the sixty five year old admiral seemed to snarl as he answered, his brown eyes staring right into his as his face scowled.

"Well Mr. President, to put it simply, frakked like some Caprican City street whore."

The other Admiral shifted in their seats uncomfortably as Adar, though taken aback by the bluntness, knew that Kaviss's character proceeded him.

"What would happen if they were to jump into the Colonies?"

The Admiral snorted in reply before Nagala had the chance to cut in, "How many ships would we lose taking about ten of the Frakkers out is the real question you mean."

"Sir we can handle their smaller escort ships, but even those can potentially and absolutely damage even a Battlestar with a direct hit with their energy torpedoes. Their pulse lasers absolutely cored through layers of our ship's armor with multiple salvos of pulses even on the Battlestars, and the lighter warships were simply deathtraps when fighting those things. When we fight them we cannot engage them with anything less than a Cruiser in battle with the exception of the Siegestars thanks to their missiles and nukes. However given the firepower of these Covenant warships we could possibly only take their lightest escort one on one, and that would be with a Battlestar."

Adar cringed as that statistic.

Nagala paused to take a breath as he continued, "It takes massed and concentrated firepower hitting at the same time or continually to take down their energy shields, and from what we have seen those shields are only more powerful the larger the ship; it took a full salvo from the entire task force to drop or overload the shields and kill a Battlestar sized warship and a further seventeen nuclear missiles to accomplish that. If they have anything as large as a Mercury I could only imagine the amount of firepower we would have to hit it with."

Adar nodded, he had watched the battle footage over and over and still could not believe the amount of firepower it took to bring one of those monsters down, and how easily their weapons cleaved through Colonial ships.

"Their fighters are a similar deal. They are incredibly fast, almost achieving the same velocities we witnessed the Earther fighters pulling mind you; are about the size of three Vipers yet they have great agility to boot. They also can engage outside of our Viper's effective gunrange and one shot them with their energy cannons. Our Vipers can only achieve an effective missile lock once we have overloaded their shields, also with continuous fire, about a full three or four seconds worth."

"Gods, that's almost an eighth of a Viper's ammo!"

Nagala nodded solemly.

"Our Viper pilots thankfully adapted and our planes are more agile but they are still totally outclassed, one of these Teardrops can take out three of ours for every one of theirs and they are a potent threat against our ships. I would suggest our ships abandoning the use of wide field Flak and focus of concentrated firepower, our Flak will simply bounce off of their shields unless you hit them directly." He finished as Adar interjected.

"How can we best combat them?" the president asked as the other Admirals looked at him puzzled, not expecting the question.

"Well given the known data we have, we are contemplating using in system jumps to avoid their plasma weaponry, but we all know that formations of ships would be scattered, leaving them open for attack. We are considering giving orders to ships that would have them keep their FTL's spooled up at all times so they may jump away if they are about to be struck by those Plasma torpedoes , but they cannot immediately jump back into formation so we loose the provided firepower either way for a good period of time." Nagala finished as Kaviss spoke up as the older man chewed on a cigar, Adar having to ignore the smoke as best he could.

"What about having some of our Gunstars or Siegestars, ships that carry firepower above their weight but have weak armor plating, be crewed with the minimal amount of crews necessary and jump as close as they can get to those ships and unload on them for as long as they can?. We could possibly disable or knock out one of their ships before they are destroyed, and if they are we lose the minimal amount of lives and we loose a ship that we can easily replace and is not as damaging a loss as a Battlestar or Cruiser. Our main problem is that we have to close to engage at range, which for us is much less than them, simply jumping in to point blank range and launching a swarm of nukes before they can zap them with their lasers would be the most effective way to fight them."

One of the other admirals, Admiral Peter Corman, spoke up.

"Are you suggesting that we trade the lives of Colonial men and women for a chance to hit the enemy?" He said accusingly.

Kaviss turned and quickly sniped back, "If you were there you would understand just how dire a situation this is. They WILL come back and they will find the Colonies. All of our ships need to be on high alert. Mr. President." Kaviss finished as Adar made up his mind.

"Inform all of our ships to be on high alert and all shore leaves suspended. I want all of our ships back from the Line and a suspension of all traffic not going directly to and from the colonies. All armed forces under the Colonial Defense Forces commands are to go to high alert. Also alert all Planetary militias and security forces under the Articles of Colonization, If the Covenant do appear in any of the home systems all assests are to immediately go to Condition One."

"Do we really want to reveal their existence? The societal impacts would…"

Adar cut the Admiral off , " For all they will know it could be the Cylons. However all of Colonial Intelligence and the Admiralty will be informed, and as well as how to fight them. The societal impact wont matter if the threat is as bad as you say it is, and considering all we have been through the past couple of months people cant get any more worried and restless."

UNSC Wink of An Eye

Helios Alpha Star System

Cyrannus Star Cluster

Six Days Later

Two Slipspace ruptures lit up the uninhabited space near the fringes of the Helios Alpha star cluster near the gas giant of Zeus and its seventy four moons.

Separated by hundreds of thousands of kilometers, two UNSC Prowlers exited the spacial distortions and promptly engaged their stealth systems.

"Status Report." Commander Branson ordered as soon as the active camouflage systems engaged and the uncomfortable shift into realspace passed and the officers in the ovalish CIC all promptly went about their duties with well oiled professionalism.

"We have arrived at our destination. Laser link established with Red Horse. Red Horse is holding position two hundred and thirty eight thousand kilometers from our position. Activating sensors." Fallon replied as the AI went about its tasks in milliseconds.

Branson looked out of the forward viewscreen at the huge orange gas giant that dominated his line of sight, his eyes managing to make out two larger natural satellites from the dozens of nearly incomprehensible chunks of rock and debris.

"Scan complete. We are in the system encountered by the Prophesy, near the large Gas giant named by the Colonials as Zeus. All scans and readouts match the planets and worlds from the Prophesy's sensor logs. I find the formation of this system to be quite fascinating. Most of these worlds lie in the habitable zone of the system's star, which is quite a bit larger than most encountered by the UNSC, as many of our worlds and colonies required at least some form of Terraforming."

Branson nodded , uncaringly , as he got down to business.

"Order the Red Horse to take up its position near the planets of Caprica and Gemenon, the second and third primaries. We will make best speed towards the first primary colony called Picon and begin monitoring operations, I want all our systems running as dark as they can. What is our ETA to our targets at our best speed Lieutenant Haverson?"

The helmsman answered without turning in his station as the man began the process of a long burn of the ship's Fusion engines, accelerating the ship to flank speed before shutting them down and reactivating the cloaking field.

"Best speed nine hours sir. I am going to slingshot us around the gas giant to bring it down to about eight and bring us around the asteroid belt as much as we can. Red Horse will enter at a more oblique angle to compensate."

Nodding as he sat down he watched as the readouts of Colonial ships and outposts on the many moons orbiting the gas giant went about their business, completely unaware as the two stealth ships passed right by a Colonial Defense Forces patrol of eight lighter warships and Vipers.

Deep Space

Second Fleet of Righteous Fury

Two Weeks Post- Battle of Leonis

Shipmaster Quno grinned as he looked out at the assembled fleet that seemingly encircled his small destroyer, now freshly repaired from the recent battle with the lesser Colonial humans.

Thirty six Covenant warships hung in close formation , forming a spherical formation around the flagship, the sleek and deadly Reverence Class Grand Cruiser Incorruptible commanded by Fleet Master Tano 'Inanraree, its graceful lines only interrupted by dozens of laser emmitters, secondary plasma cannons, seven laterally mounted Plasma Turrets, and two energy projectors.

Joining the Three kilometer flagship were seven CCS class Battlecruisers a followed closely by four RPV Class Carriers that were loading up their wings of deadly Seraph starfighters.

Complementing them and acting as dedicated escorts were the looming forms of three fifteen hundred meter long RPV Class Heavy destroyers which were essentially much larger versions of Shipmaster Quno's own destroyer. Rounding up the fleet were two smaller CCR Class cruisers like the one the Colonial humans had managed to destroy, four regular destroyers including the Far Sight Lost; six frigates, five Corvettes and a further four CRS Class Light Cruisers.

The lights of the ships and the smaller wings of Seraphs that formed a protective bubble around them seemed to form a globe of lights as Quno went back to the task at hand.

His ship had been heavily damaged at the last battle with the lesser humans, but mostly the hull breaches that had tore into the hull were patched, reminding him further of just how much less powerful these Colonial humans were than the accursed UNSC humans.

Still diseased vermin

At the fore of the bridge Quno's sensor officer turned to him, a look of excitement and a lack of patience clear in his demeanor.

"Sir Fleetmaster Tano is hailing."

Moving to his seat as his bulk and weight shifted to the hover chair, Quno nodded. " On screen."

The viewscreen that dominated the cavern of the bridge shifted to show the Fleetmaster, the elder Zealot's white armor adorned with marks and scars from his many great battles against the enemies of the Covenant.

"Greetings Shipmaster. The fleet is ready to jump. I trust that your ship is ready for glorious battle?"

Nodding but dipping his head remembering his withdrawal from the previous battle with the much larger Colonial fleet that had been encountered.

"Yes fleetmaster, me and my crew wish to redeem our honor and our ship is ready for combat."

The image flickered for a second from interference as the Admiral briefly glanced off of the camera as the flagship's crew gave a status report that all of the singleships were docked.

"Fear not, for you shall soon get the chance. The brief sweep we were able to get from our sensors and the handful of scoutships we have determined that there is a major world in the system that our probe was able to scout out. The Hierarchy refuses to give us many more ships, as they are focused on yet another assault on the world of Harvest and finding more worlds of these UNSC humans, an ultimately their homeworld. We will be jumping shortly."

"Yes fleetmaster. I assure you that my ship and crew are committed to the fight."

The fleetmaster nodded as the screen flickered off and the turned to the bridge crew.

"It is time for us to redeem ourselves. Our weapons demand blood."

Five minutes later thirty seven Covenant warships opened slipspace ruptures, and quickly disappeared into the swirling mass of dimensional space.

Reach

"Contact right! Elite!" Linda shouted through the com link as the two other Spartans abruptly pivoted their weapons onto the new threat.

"Affirmative." Kurt coolly replied as the sights of his BR86 Gauss Rifle swept onto the new threat, a roaring Covenant Elite that spun around the corner at the end of the corridor thirty meters away.

Kurt's superhuman reflexes put the sights of the Gauss Rifle on the head of the roaring alien, just as a plasma bolt fired from the enemy's Plasma repeater flew past.

Kurt's eyes didn't even stray from the target as his training and enhanced senses let him shift most of his armored body to the side away from the bolt of hellfire in a blur of superhuman speed, keeping his sights on target all at the same time.

The Elite Major didn't have a chance as his shields winked out from a three round burst of 4mm magnetically accelerated rounds, the alien roaring in surprise as his fire failed to fell the human.

Hardly a second later another roar of three four millimeter hypersonic slugs of tungsten removed its head in a spray of gore.

"Clear right!" Kurt announced as he spun around to face the other threat his threat sensors marked in red as John and Linda dispatched another three Covenant elites, this time jet troopers in similar rapid fashions.

The Spartans moved up supporting each other as a pack of screaming Grunts were felled and a Phalanx of shielded Jackals shattered under the inhuman hail and roar of accurate fire.

"Move up, switch to the Mike." John announced as the trio exited the building to yet another rooftop of a skyscraper, one among many whom were now shattered husks of a war torn city.

Kurt acknowledged as he strapped his Gauss Battle Rifle to his back's magnetic strips and pulled the M-43 Microwave Incendiary Klystron Emitter, better known as a Mike, off of his back all the while as he and the three Spartans ran to the edge of the building at superhuman speeds.

Kurt briefly glanced at the surrounding cityscape- all but torn apart in the ongoing hell of battle as a flaming UNSC Skyhawk flew but a mile past and crashed into a building as a trio of heavy plasma pulses from a flight of Banshees tore into it.

"There is our extraction point." John announced with his normal unemotional calm during battle as Kurt's helmet's HUD outlined the glowing orange arrow on the roof of the building next to them and twenty floors taller, just as the edge of the roof came nearer and the three leapt off of the roof with one last push from their augmented muscles and into empty space.

With a thought and his neural uplink Kurt activated the MJOLNIR's thruster pack, the two concealed thrusters popping out of the back of his armor and lifting the 800 pound super soldier and flinging him upwards.

The countdown that had been on the side of his field of vision ticked down to zero as the three accelerated and climbed.

A thunderous crack was all that Kurt heard as heat and flame tried to lap at him as the building they had just jumped from exploded and came crashing down on a controlled path.

Right onto the Scarab dominating the huge boulevard a thousand feet below that was assaulting a UNSC armored brigade, the untold amount of debris crushing the Covenant assault walker instantly.

John, Linda and Kurt neared the top floors of the adjoining tower just as a line of Covenant soldiers, Jackals and Elites popped from cover and sent a hail of plasma and fire at them.

Kurt and the others rolled out of the way and dodged the fire while still climbing, as Kurt readied his weapon.

Just eclipsing the edge of the roof Kurt opened up as he kept climbing, slowing his speed but pivoting to the right and out of a line of enemy fire.

A searing line of heat ignited the air in a laser like beam as a huge amount of accelerated Microwaves, condensed and powered into the kilowatts, instantly hit the line of Covenant as Kurt held the trigger down and the sights on each individual alien for two seconds.

Grunts, Elites and Jackals literally burst into flames from the inside as the microwaves ignited their internal liquids and boiled them from the inside, wholly bypassing shields and finding open spaces in armor.

The line of alien soldiers literally boiled away as the trio landed on the top of the roof, the burning carcasses simmering around them as John and Linda finished the remainders off with bursts from their rifles.

END SIMULATION

Kurts eyed struggled to compensate as the virtual world gave way to reality and the visceral sounds of a battle and a devastated simulated city gave way to the brightly lit interior of ONI Castle base's simulation chamber.

Shaking his head he stepped out of the individual pod as Linda and John did the same, Kurt scratching his neck where his neural uplink had unplugged from the machine.

"Good call on equipping the Mike, Ive never really been a fan of the weapon, too fragile for me though." John spoke as he disconnected himself from his own simulator.

Kurt was about to speak before the door at the far end of the simulator lined room opened, revealing the familiar form of Dr. Catherine Halsey, wearing her ever familiar lab coat and carrying her flexipad, tapping away at it as she walked towards the trio while dodging several robotic technicians working on installing a new simulator.

"Good job Spartans. I must say you are coming to take a liking to the new built in thruster packs, you have allowed for more flexible tactical options." She spoke as she changed her gaze to the assembled supersoldiers, all of whom struck a typical salute.

Halsey sighed, "At ease Spartans, Im not an Admiral."

John looked at Kurt for a second, as if checking with his subordinate to see it if it was okay.

Linda remained quiet.

"Yes ma'am" Kurt and John spoke at once, glancing at each other as the two stole a quick flash of amusement as the three dropped their salutes, still standing straight.

Halsey let loose a rare grin as she continued.

"I want you and the others here to get as much training with those new thruster packs as you can. Word is you will be shipping back out to the front lines soon, this time against suspected Innie activity still trying to make a name for themselves at Venzia."

Kurt frowned as John and Linda nodded, the name of the world immediately ringing a sour note.

Halsey continued, "You would think that after how many times we put down the rebels there and how many soldiers that damn world has patrolling it and loosing their right to self govern after the Rebellion War they would learn that terrorism gets them now where. We believe that they have been smuggling captured Covenant small arms and selling them on the black market, how the hell they got them you and Blue team are going to find out."

"Yes ma'am, when are we going against the Covenant again?" Kurt asked as he again scratched his now irritated neural implant.

"I am not privy to that information but we do know that Cole's victory set them back a bit and the Admiralty is beginning to ponder the notion of evacuating the outer most colonies that are most in danger, trying to defend all of those tiny outposts is just sapping resources. But Cole and Admiral Stanforth's fleets will be deploying to Harvest soon, we suspect that tying up as many Covenant as we can there would help keep them out of the rest of the colonies and away from the Inner Colonies. Plus they keep making small attacks on our forces there that an attack must be immanent…"

"And Cole wants to by time and let them waste resources over a lost world, plus we can really be on the offense." John finished as Halsey nodded as she placed her data pad in her labcoat.

"I am going to run some more tests you all can head to the range or, heaven forbid enjoy a few hours off."

"Yes ma'am" John spoke for the group as the trio soon made their way back to their quarters.

Halsey waited for the door to close as she pulled the data pad out of her pocket and activated it, reviewing the psychological readouts of Kurt during the latest round of simulations.

After Kurt's fight with the Colonials she couldn't have one of her Spartans hesitating to kill a fellow human, something she was always worried about now with years of fighting the Covenant, and something she was sure she would be for years to come.

Colonial Heavy 231

Adriane Fellows sighed as the malfunctioning thruster light went off again, causing the Tauron captain to curse and throw her pen at the control panel in a vain attempt to relieve her mixture of boredom and stress.

"Piece of shit!" Adriane bellowed as her co-pilot , a long time friend from the agrarian colony of Aerleron , Danson Leesan , looked over at her with a loom of benign amusement.

"You really do hate the Picon run don't you ?" Leesan asked with a look of bemeausment as he took his seat next to her.

Leesan's grin only grew bigger when he received the look of death from Adriane.

"Frak off, I only agreed to haul freight for the fleet cause my son's college is now requiring him to study on Canceron for a tri-mester. Like I they really needed to make a requirement to study off world." She replied as she fiddled with a bag of chips stuffed into the recesses of the cockpit controls.

Her co-pilot nodded as he did a check on the DRADIS while she settled in and watched the tiny orb of Tauron slowly grow larger in the windscreen.

"We are all clear for about a couple thousand kilometers, nothing more than a couple of other freighters and a small Tauron Space Guard patrol ship. We should be nearing the outer most of the gravity well of Tauron soon, about two hours."

Adriane nodded as she yawned, the slow pace of most civilian ships making their runs in between the planets of the Colonies' systems taking at times a day.

"So what do you think about all of this crap going on along the borders? I mean I heard our company lost a freighter in Leonis a week ago, and they are not saying a thing." The man talked away as she sighed.

"Lets just say I am glad that all I do is in system runs. Ive seen the fleet not only double its ships and defenses but pull out some ships that I saw as a child, some from the war I think Frak our counterparts around Gemonon swear they saw a couple of Viper Mk. II's flying about. All I know is it cant be good."

Her partner nodded in agreement, " Mk II's? Frak me. The news is saying it might be the Earthers, but the military apartently acknowledged that they are less worried about them starting a fight again, you think the Cylons?"

"I don't know what to think about the Thirteenth tribe, Hades their existence is a bombshell alone, but to think that those rumors of how two of their ships trashed what was sent against them are true then it makes you wonder. Many from my temple thankfully are not freaking the frak out like others are. I mean think about it. What if what they supposedly said is true? The impliations? I mean rumors filtered out from the Perseus that they claim to control dozens of not just worlds, but star systems filled with them."

She paused as she noticed the small rise in ambient readouts she was getting a couple of thousand kilometers out before continuing.

"But if it is the Cylons why would the military keep it all hush hush? We all know about them and wouldn't it be more prudent to have the population mobilized?"

She thought aloud as the readout that had previously stole her attention began to give a blaring warning as a huge DRADIS contact began to overwhelm her sensors.

"What the frak?..."

Adriane fellows never got to finish her statement as the inexplicable forces of trans dimensional space tore open right on top of the tiny ship.

Energies that briefly escaped and survived for several seconds in real space dramatically warped space and induced gravity and tears in a relatively small area of space that Adriane Fellows and her co-pilot had the misfortune of occupying at the wrong time.

The Colonial freighter was simply torn apart by the point blank exit opening of a Slipspace rupture as dozens more like it tore open nearby, out of which came a fleet of Covenant warships.

The small Tauron defense ship, operated separate from the Colonial Fleet could only watch helplessly as the sweeping sea creature like form of a CCS Battlecruiser emerged from slipspace, its own form casting a shadow on it before a brief sweep from its pulse lasers sliced the ship open as all of the civilian ships in the area were simply erased.

The only clue that something was wrong was the frantic radio message and laser communication that was sent to the Tauron Defense HQ, and immediately sent to all commands and to Picon.

The thirty six alien vessels, all of them successful in their transition to realspace, powered up their repulse engines and began their dreadful progress towards the Colony of Tauron.

Tauron Defense Headquarters

"Optical telescopes are zooming in now we have an image on screen!" the young woman , a lieutenant, called out as Admiral Corman narrowed his eyes on the screen.

The ships on the screen that dominated the cavern of the station's Control Center were all too familiar, for several seconds he hoped it was the Cylons.

But it was not to be.

"Is it the Thirteenth Tribe?" he heard several officers ask aloud as he cleared his throat.

"I want this image dispatched to ALL commands. I want every ship we got to Condition One now and to form a defensive line just past the second Lagrangian point of Mines." He ordered, referring to the large ringed moon of Tauron as icons of friendly ships sluggishly moved into position, preparing to put themselves in between the alarmingly fast moving Covenant fleet and Tauron.

"All defenses are to be activated and you are to target once in range."

Men and women looked at him incredulously as he turned to the senior officer.

"Send the Orange Band information packet to all ships and commanders. And give me a fleet wide broadcast."

The Canceron native nodded, knowing just what that meant having been privy to the briefing that his superior had been given a week ago.

"You are on. Sir." His XO nodded as Corman picked up the handset and began the task of informing the men and women who were now going to be in the fight of their lives, who they were fighting and why.

"Colonial warriors. Men and Women of the Fleet and all branches….."

He continued as the force of some seventy ships, the dedicated defenses for the colony , all redlined their engines and thrusters and arrayed themselves in front of the gigantic modularized form of Tauron's defense Headquarters as more ships from the world's cluttered orbit raced to catch up.

Civilian ships, all struggling to clear the skies, all listened in shock as their channels picked up the very open frequency.

Sirens not used since the Cylon war began to blare throughout cities across Tauron as civilians began to panic and the emergency channels and Breaking news headlines broke in to every scheduled programming.

Across the various military bases warplanes taxied for liftoff as Vipers and their assorted variants and assault ships took the skies, making for orbit.

"…..we don't know why they are attacking, but we do know that they are at war with Earth, its reported Colonies and its defense forces, the UNSC. The only reason that even the Earthers know, who have supposedly been at war with them for several years now, told was because they were simply human. Our attempts at talking to them went unheard, and we were forced to fight them, winning at a great cost in Leonis…."

Corman paused as the eerie silence that now reigned in the CIC made him breath.

He could feel his heart in his throat as the muted stares of his men and women bored holes in him.

They needed a driving force of encouragement.

The sixty year old Admiral cleared his raspy throat as he himself said a prayer.

"We WILL defend our homes to the very last bullet, the very last warrior and the very last ship! The gods are on our side and these demons will die! SO SAY WE ALL!"

Minutes later throughout the various Battlestars, Cruisers, Gunstars, Vipers and other assorted warships, this cry reverberated as the Covenant Fleet passed the two hundred thousand kilometer mark, their huge ships eclipsing the edge of the curve of Tauron's moon as the alien warships bored down on the Colonial fleet.

"So say we all." Admiral Corman whispered to himself as the two lines of combatants neared each other.