"How may I help you?" To say Jonathan O'neill was nervous would be an understatement. Even with his backup on hand the simple question from the clerk had almost made him jump.
"Uh, you see the misses and I are looking for something special for the big day." He explained. At the comment he felt Karin's arm tense up against his own. "She means the world to me, so I need something exceptional."
"Oh honey, you're too much." Karin stated with a quiet laugh, though inside she wondered why the bastard was taking the role so seriously.
The clerk didn't notice the subtle hints that something was off, falling for the act. "Well, I have quite the selection for you."
The next few minutes where spent talking over the selection of wedding rings in stock. After several minutes of eliminating options, they picked a fairly expensive pair of rings which most people couldn't hope to afford.
"Will that be cash or credit?" The clerk asked.
Jonathan smiled. "Cash." He leaned over and feigned a whisper. "With the type of money I spend when my fiancé pulls me out shopping the interest really adds up."
The joke earned him an elbow to the ribs, which acting or no acting still hurt. The clerk simply chucked, looking over the notes he had been given to make sure they were not counterfeits. Feeling they were of an acceptable, he gave the couple their rings and change.
"Think we did it a little too strongly?" Karin asked as they walked to the next store.
"I don't know, I think we fooled him." Jon replied. He stopped walking to give a homeless man the equivalent of a hundred dollars. "He really thought the bills where real."
"That's not what I meant." Karin stated, giving him a light gab again. She hated it when he played dumb on purpose, it was an annoying trait he held over from Jack O'neill.
"Hello, how may I help you?" A clerk in the electronic store they had entered asked.
"Well you see my wife and I are moving, and we've decided to get a whole new home entertainment system." Jonathan explained.
The clerk simply smiled. "Of course, right this way."
Warehouse thirty kilometers east
Outskirts of Caprica City
Jeff would be lying if he'd said he wasn't nervous. Of course with his ability and willingness to lie he would say just that, but ever the actor he tried his best to not show it. The man sitting across the table from him was looking over the bill in great interest.
"Looks good, but what does a guy like you do going around looking for a big source of karason?" One of the two brutes the man had guarding him misinterpreted the question as a hostile one, and momentarily moved to point his gun towards Jeff before the man signaled him to stop.
"I represent a family who is interested in making karason available within their territory on Canceron." Jeff explained. "We're looking for a reliable source."
"Well I'm always looking for new sources, but Canceron seems an odd place to expand to. It may be the largest market, but the distance involved makes transportation quite risky." The man stated. "What exactly is this family you work for?"
"It's not really a family, more of a clan. We call ourselves the Tau'ri." Jeff explained. "We're hoping to brake new grounds and aggressively expand into the territory of families who have recently done under due to the recent crackdowns."
"Alright, say I want to sell you my karason, how much of it are we talking about?"
"A hundred million cubits." Jeff stated flatly.
The man wasn't able to hide the surprise he was feeling. "Uh-h I see. Well, I think something can be arranged."
Rural clearing
Outside Caprica City urban sprawl
Evening
Jeff and Michael each brought the large trucks they were driving to a halt next to the two smaller ones already waiting.
"You're late." Jonathan informed the two as they each disembarked from their trucks.
"Sorry about that, you wouldn't believe how paranoid drug dealers can be." Jeff shot back.
"Technically we are the drug dealers in all this, he's just the supplier." Michael spoke up, not missing the chance.
"Whatever, we're here, the money's not, that's all that matters." Jeff countered.
"Well you're here now, so better late than never." Karin stated. She walked up to the two trucks and placed a small device on each. She gave a thumbs up and stepped back from the vehicles.
"SG-14 to Daedalus, two dirty packages to beam up." Jonathan said, speaking into his radio.
"Roger SG-14, beaming up in three, two, one, mark." With a flash of light the two trucks disappeared in a flash of light. Being classed as 'dirty packages', the contents of the trucks were destroyed while the machines themselves kept in energy storage within the transporter system. They would be beamed back down to a team who needed them.
"So how full where those things anyway?" Karin asked.
"So full I think they may have been leaking." Michael replied.
"Well, that's a lot of drugs." Jonathan stated.
The operation, code named Market Crash, was a simple one. A dozen SG teams coupled with hundreds of agents from different Earth organizations where buying large numbers of products, both legal and otherwise, with the use of cubits, or what the Colonials thought where cubits. In reality they were forgeries made curtesy of European and American government printing presses. As it stood the first stage of the plan, pumping as many forgeries into the Caprican economy as there where real bills, was well underway. Even as the team stood in the open fields the price of low grade naquadah, or tylium as the locals called it, was going up on the planet due to the orders being placed. Drugs and weapons were also disappearing from the streets, the criminal underworld being hit hardest by the flood of fake cubits even the professional counterfeiters could not see.
Not all of the teams where cleaning the streets of illicit items and fuel which Earth already had more than enough of. Jonathan and Karin where one of many groups sent out to buy 'clean' items, high prices items which could be put to practical use by either Earth's governments or state run organizations. This included appliances, for each item they bought with the fake cubits in the Colonies for either their base expansions or plans on P4X-393 was items which didn't need to be bought using S.W.O.R.D.'s budget.
The plan would eventually get more difficult to keep working. Eventually inflation would cause people to be more suspicious of their large purchases, so they'd need to use faked bank and credit cards. Both where already being made on Earth, but until they were done they had the equivalent of several trillion dollars of currency to pump into the Colonial economy.
"Think they might let us keep the rings?" Jonathan asked as the smaller trucks carrying the 'clear' consumer items where beamed away. Karin gave him an odd stare. "What? They're nice rings."
High Orbit
Galar
The standoff that was taking place was a tense one. Though no one had done any overtly hostile action, the small and not very well armed ships of the Galaran military stood ready to defend their planet from the half dozen ships which had appeared out of nowhere. As a precaution, a message for help had already been sent through the gate to Earth.
"Unidentified vessels, in the name of the Galaran Navy I demand to you identify yourselves immediately and state your intent." The lead vessel broadcasted.
"Ikato Pegasus gjwan onbsbhdw, mibo efp honas kohbal bojsf. Defoeb jfoa as ojbha hofia hfo ahsfoe ohas kito." A male voice replied over the channel. The Captain allowed the computer a few moments to translate. "This is the battlestar Pegasus, of the Twelve Colonies of Kobol. We mean no harm and bear no hostilities."
The communications officer looked at the Captain. "Well sir, at least we're off to a good start."
"I don't like it." The Captain replied. "If this is a first contact scenario that's peaceful, why do they have a fleet that could possibly walk right through us? Why not just a lone scout ship?"
"Perhaps they've run across the Goa'uld one too many times to want their ships to travel alone?" The first officer hypothesized. "They also could simply have been traveling through to another location, the possibilities are infinite."
"I still don't like it." The Captain repeated as he took the microphone. "This is Captain Petris of the Galaran Navy, state your intent."
"This is Rear Admiral Helena Cain of the Colonial Fleet." A new, female voice replied. "We have no hostile intent towards your world. We're simply exploring this part of the galaxy."
"Forgive my skepticism, Admiral, but your fleet seems less like that for exploration and more like one of a military action." Petris replied.
"A result of circumstance, unfortunately. We've recently entered a state of hostilities with a world with quite formidable weapons." There was a momentary pause. "The people we fight are quite dangerous. They've destroyed an entire world, a whole civilization, already."
"That sure sounds like the Goa'uld." The first officer stated.
"It could be a Jaffa world, I highly doubt the Goa'uld have returned without our knowledge." Petris remarked. He turned back his attention to the mic. "Admiral, we may be able to help you with your troubles. We have allies, powerful allies. We could arrange for a meeting with them."
"That would be greatly appreciated." Cain replied. "We'll send out a Raptor with one of our representatives."
Twenty minutes later
Skies above Galaran capital
Jurgen Belzen felt oddly uneasy. Though the Galarans had allowed two of their Vipers to escort the Raptor, he felt exposed as he approached the world which seemed to be at least a few decades ahead of the Colonies in technology. As the Raptor started to land at the designated location, he got up and prepared himself for whatever aliens he was about to meet.
Imagine his surprise when the aliens looked exactly like humans.
"Greeting, I am Limous, here as a representative of my world." The man standing next to the open door stated.
"Uh, I'm Lieutenant Commander Belzen, representative of the Twelve Colonies of Kobol." Belzen replied. Though officially it should have been Thirteen Colonies of Kobol, the legislation at home which would make the change of name official had not passed yet, at least not to the knowledge of the Pegasus crew. "You look… human."
Limous laughed. "Well what where you expecting?"
"I don't know, something more… not human." Belzen stated as he disembarked. He offered his hand, which Limous shook.
"I think your world may be a little out of the loop." Limous stated. "Come, we have a meeting hall being prepared for an official beginning of diplomacy between our worlds, as well as our Tau'ri allies."
"Tau'ri?" Belzen asked in confusion. The two men started to walk towards one of the buildings close to the landing pad.
"The Tau'ri are our closest ally, a great trade partner and the proud defender of our world." Limous explained.
"Defender of your world?"
"Our world is part of the Protected Planet's Treaty. Though it is an alliance of equals in an economic sense, from a military perspective we are more a protectorate than anything else." Limous lamented. He didn't hold ill will towards the Earth, on the contrary they were better friends then his world could have hoped for, but in the short period since the Earth had taken the place of the Asgard as their protectors the modernization of their space navy had not been fast enough. It was hoped that one day they would be strong enough to officially leave the Treaty, and renegotiate with the Earth into a true equal partnership, some radicals even proposing unification. Until then the status quo remained, with a 304 promised to be stationed full time in a year.
"How did your people arrive to this world?" Belzen asked out of curiosity.
"Ours is the story of most human worlds, our ancestors where kidnapped from the Tau'ri millennium ago by the Goa'uld and used as slaves. We were lucky though, the Asgard liberated us and allowed our society to develop to what you see today." Limous informed him.
"So there are even more human worlds out there?" Belzen asked in astonishment.
"Yes, there are quite many. The Goa'uld kidnapped many ancestors from the Tau'ri."
"Well, this is quite the surprise." Belzen stated as he thought about the implications. "Until only a few years ago we believed out worlds to be the only with humans outside of our ancestral homeworld. There where legends of a thirteenth world, but even with they and yet another human world we believed that was the end of it." He paused for a moment. This brought the human worlds count to sixteen at least. "How many worlds did these 'Goa'uld' take people from the Tau'ri?"
"Oh, hundreds, maybe thousands. Just the Protected Planets Treaty alone includes twenty seven worlds, including ourselves and the Tau'ri. Though admittedly one is an uninhabitable gas giant and remains in the treaty only as a formality."
As the two arrived at the entrance of their destination, Belzen wondered how much was out there. "My worlds are quite ignorant of the galaxy at large due to our isolation, would you mind telling me a few things about these 'Goa'uld'?"
Terran Embassy
Galaran capital
Ambassador Derhaven had been surprised by the sudden call from the Galaran government. The call was the type which usually came once in a career, though it seemed working offworld seemed to have such events happen more frequently than that. An advanced world, though not as advanced as Galar, had a fleet of ships appear overhead with the intent to explore and make contact. To say he was surprised would have been an understatement. He had sent a message to gate control to dial Earth and send a quick message to them informing them of the developments. The respond was a predictable message to open a dialogue with the representative of the new world.
The situation wasn't one which gave him much optimism about the outcome of the event. Sure, the Earth seemed to have a new potential advanced ally, but from the tidbits of information he had been given seemed to indicate either someone they knew had chosen to bloody these people's noses without them realizing it, or a new powerful world which could become quite the problem. They didn't need another enemy, not with the Colonials and Aschen out there.
Derhaven walked into the lobby, he found his Galaran counterpart speaking to a man who seemed to be wearing an unfamiliar military uniform. As he walked closer to them, he heard them speaking about what seemed to be the Goa'uld.
"Good afternoon Limous." Derhaven called out when the conversation seemed to hit a slump.
"Ah, Ambassador, thank you for meeting us in a timely manner." Limous moved to not stand between the two men. "Ambassador, this is Lieutenant Commander Belzen. Commander, this is the Terran Ambassador Derhaven."
"Terran? I thought you said he was Tau'ri?" Belzen asked in confusion.
"That's a PR problem, the wider galaxy knows us as the Tau'ri, but we prefer to be called Terrans." The Ambassador explained. "Anyway we have a room set up for just this type of situation. Come this way so we can begin."
Belzen simply nodded, though the feeling of things being off returned to him as they walked through the halls of the building. When they turned a corner and he saw a symbol on the wall, realization hit him, and his unease instantly turned to panic. The symbol was a simple one, simply an upside down V with a small circle above it, but that was enough. He had read the reports, and it meant only one thing. Earth.
He was in the heart of an ally of Earth, a protectorate, a glorified colony, one of dozens. And they knew of hundreds, perhaps thousands of worlds with humans. Just what the hell where they dealing with.
"Are you alright Commander?" Limous asked.
"Just feeling nervous, this is a position I had never expected to find myself in." He explained. It was true after all, though not in the way his host thought.
"I see, well I would probably feel the same way if I was suddenly representing twelve worlds without expecting to." Limous replied. Derhaven's back stiffened up for a moment, going unnoticed by Limous but not being missed by Belzen.
"I have to make a call, please take any seat in the room you want." Derhaven informed them as they reached a door. After the two non-Terrans entered he whispered an order to the two guards. "I have to make a call, I shall return as soon as possible."
The moment the Ambassador left Belzen took the opportunity to use a pen on the table to write on blank papers, writing down every tidbit he felt was relevant that he had learned in his short time on the planet.
"So tell me more about the Goa'uld and these 'Jaffa' you mentioned." He stated, writing furiously.
It took a good half hour for Derhaven to return. When he did, he had another representative of the Galaran government by his side. Belzen had by this point several pages, with notes on human worlds, Jaffa, Goa'uld and other information Limous had given him.
Neither Ambassador Derhaven nor the other representative said anything as he handed the Commander a document. Belzen was unsure of himself as he took the document and read it to himself. To his surprise, the document was a formal declaration of war on the Twelve Colonies of Kobol and the Aschen Confederation on the part of Galar, Earth, the Protected Planets and the colonies there of. The document included a note stating safe passage to the Pegasus fleet out of Galaran territory.
"Is this some type of joke?" Belzen asked. He probably had not been the best choice for the diplomatic mission, but most would agree he was a better choice than Cain, including the Admiral herself.
"Your world committed an act of war against my people and we have already begun to respond in kind, a formal declaration simply makes the current state of things official." Derhaven explained. "Unless you wish to negotiate a peace treaty on behalf of your government, an action I doubt you are authorized to do, I kindly ask you to leave this world and to never return until such time as hostilities between our people end."
High orbit
An hour later
"So this world is a colony of Earth?" Cain asked as her XO stepped out of the Raptor.
"Yes ma'am, it would appear so. One of several dozen by the looks of it." He confirmed.
"I see." Cain walked to the hanger's comm. to the CIC. "CIC, Cain, set condition one throughout the fleet, launch all Vipers and prepare for battle. Get a Raptor to the fleet requesting immediate backup."
"Ma'am?" Belzen asked as alarms started to blast though the ship.
"Commander, we are officially at war with the planet below. We need a victory, and this is the perfect opportunity that will never come again." She informed him. The two quickly made their way to the CIC.
"Admiral, all ships confirm full readiness and all birds are in the air." One of the officers informed her.
The ships in orbit didn't stand a chance. Despite the technological disparity between Galar and the Colonies, due to the restrictions on their weapons development under Asgard rule the few warships they had where hopelessly inadequate. At first both sides tried to use brute force to take out the opposition, but the dense hulls of the Colonial vessels shrugged off the relatively weak plasma weapons of Galar while the kinetic weapons of the Pegasus' escort ships bounced off the shields. The tactic of both sides quickly changed, the five smaller Colonial ships concentrating fire while the Pegasus unleashed her forward main guns on the smaller ships. A single salvo was enough to take out the small Galar ships, half of the barrage being used to take out the shields with brute force while the second half was used to smash through the thin hulls of the ships.
Galar's ships mimicked the concentrated fire, damaging the Pegasus by trying to take out her forward batteries. By the time the third Galar vessel fell, Pegasus had lost her forward mounted fixed batteries. To compensate for this, she turned to port to allow her none-fixed batteries to target the ships while not allowing the enemy to concentrate on a specific battery.
The fourth ship to be lost by Galar prompted one of the four remaining warships to charge the Pegasus, the other three realizing the futility of fighting the ship and concentrating on the smaller ships. The ship came in high, exposing it to fire from all the port side batteries as it charged the ship at its best possible speed. It never reached the Pegasus in one piece, being ripped in two by heavy weapons fire. The ship did however accomplish part of its goal as the two solid masses hit the much larger ship at high speed right in the port nacelle. The kinetic energy crushed bulkheads, bent metal, and caused the whole nacelle to be pushed inwards towards the main hull. Part of the metal from the nacelle made contact with the main hull, the connection the only one remaining with the main ship as the two points of connection between the main hull and the nacelle where ripped open, exposing areas of the Pegasus to the vacuum. Inside the uncrushed parts of the nacelle the crew where lost, those not exposed to space killed by the force of the impact.
The final three Galaran warships were dispatched by the combined fire of the smaller Colonial ships, with the final one being overwhelmed by a barrage from the Pegasus after she rotated, allowing her starboard guns to have a clear shot. The government of Galar was given an ultimatum, surrender or the dozen nuclear warheads of the Pegasus would destroy their civilization, the remains being crushed by orbital strikes afterwards.
By the time a fleet from Earth arrived, a heavy colonial transport had brought a nuclear bomb into the heart of Galar's capital, and reinforcements had arrived. The three 304s sent to defend the world left in peace, returning to Earth in shame at the inability to liberate the world under their care, their first defeat in the war.