Chapter 12 Preparing the Field

The Colonial Station was like a cross of Union station in Washington DC with a grand hotel. It was separated into three sections; the bottom floor was the subway. The ground level was a massive shopping mall in the center and movie/concert halls on the wings. It was cross roads point between multiple places around the capital so foot travel was always heavy. Finally, the top two floors was a hotel for VIP visitors to the Capital. The flat roof of the building was used as a Raptor landing point, however no Raptors where currently sitting on the multiple pads. Instead six more Owl transports had joined the first one on Caprica bring the total Tau'ri force down here to just under a hundred people.

"Did you do the sweep?" inquired General Shepard as he cut a piece of ham off the larger piece on his plate before taking a bite. The Colonials where holding a welcoming feast for them in a couple hours but if the intelligence report was correct about what they were having it didn't sound good to most of the Tau'ri delegation. Since this was the welcoming dinner, the colonials would be showing their best and strangest food.

"Yes, found all the listening devises including the ones they didn't want us to find," reported O'Neill as he took a bite from his own piece of baked ham before going after the macaroni and cheese. "We have also sealed the exits with our own systems so unless they blow a hole in the door no one is getting up here without us knowing."

"Good." confirmed Shepard "And our little PR stunt with the animals?"

"Setting up now," confirmed O'Neill as he checked his watch, he had changed it to Caprica time so it read 17 hundred hours, or 4pm since the colonials here had a 26 hour day and midday was 13 instead of 12. "The dinner is at six correct?"

"That is when it starts but we will not eat to likely seven or eight," confirmed Shepard as he checked his own watch "I better get going Teyla should be landing soon along with the next group people."

"And I have to make an information request." stated Jack both of them knew that another operation was taking place on nearby Tauron. Since Caprica and its sister world Gemenon where on total lock down but nearby Tauron was not.

It was middle of the night in a warehouse looking one story building outside of the Capital of Tauron City. The colonials had a strange habit in the view of the people from Earth of naming their capital city after the planets. The building outside the bright lights of Tauron City was only a single story high and had a chain link fence around it. Guards patrolled the site but mostly to stop drunken idiots coming back from the nearby bars from doing anything too stupid. They were not trained to handle an actual planned attack on the building, yet alone one that they could not see.

There was no sign of anything out of the ordinary as suddenly a light guest of wind caused some nesting birds on the roof to take flight. The roof had no alarms or even cameras since the Colonials had never had to deal with a ship like a puddle jumper. Seconds after the Jumper came to a stop three armed figures dressed head to toe in black. They did not run toward the roof entrees instead they headed toward a small box located in the corner. One of the figurers pulled a small laptop computer out and plugged a cable into the small box.

"How much time do you need?" inquired Ronan as he stood over Dr. McKay.

"Give me a couple of moments," reported McKay as he began to hack into the buildings computer network. They all knew that right under their feet was a Colonial server farm. The routers down there where not military and was only give total access to the colonial internet. The military computer network would come later; first, they had get information on who were the major players in the colonies. The virus defense that the colonials had put in place was laughable to McKay who had spent years dealing with Ancient, Asgard, Wraith and countless other computer systems. Within minutes, he had gained access to the network, which spread out across Tauron. The colonials had adopted a sort of isolated network to defend against the Cylons. Each world had its own internet network, the only way to communicate between networks on different worlds was with satellites and those only updated every couple of days after a scan for any virus. The hope was that if the Cylons where to get into the system the colonials could cut off the infected network from others. Some of the world has even separated it down even more so that different parts of the planet had different internet. It would not stop this Tau'ri, Asgard, Ancient hybrid of the program from reaching it all but it would slow it down.

"Uploading." reported McKay as he began uploading a computer program of his own design, using some Asgard code his program called Nightfall would begin to do a total sweep of the network and create multiple lists of key figures in the colonies. It would be these people that the intelligence agencies would go after to get more detailed information. The Nightfall program would create lists of 25 key people in the areas of Politics, Business, Science, Culture, Religious and Historical, the top ten would then get more research done on them so that the Tau'ri could get a list of major players in the colonies. Once that part of the intelligence mission was done it would move on and begin making what the military called strike plans, where it would find the military bases and key locations of war importance and list them based on importance. This was done in the hopes that it would not have to be used.

"How much longer?" inquired Ronan

"Done, all we need to do is set up the broadcaster," said McKay as he pulled out a small disk about 8 in across and only two inches deep, this McKay attached to the wireless network of the building. The broadcaster would send updates as it finished each of its massive task. The solar cell would provide all the power it would need for its task but it needed to stay out of sight. "Put it on the roof over there."

With that, McKay handed the disk off to Ronan who took it and ran it over to where the roof enters door was and with a single hand he pulled himself up onto the small rise placing the disk down. With that done, all of them ran back to the Jumper, which took off without anyone in Tauron or the rest of the Colonies being the wiser.

Across the mall from the Colonial Station sat the Cylon War museum where the history of the most deadly conflict in the history of the 12 colonies of Kobol was preserved for all time. While the museum was open to the public the roof was being used for another mater. Sitting in hidden outposts where members of Colonial Intelligence Services or CIS. Normally they had only two missions, gather information about possible Cylon threats and terrorist actions. Now all their efforts where put toward studying the arrival of their cousins from Earth. They had watched the strange craft called Owls come and go. While they were larger then Raptors and capable of carrying more they seemed just as capable in every other way. Everyone who had come off those ships along with equipment had been photographed and would be studied. So far, they had seen what they expected to see. People and equipment moving off the transports and into the building, some of the people where armed but that was understandable. There were even armed guards walking around the roof of the building with marksmen in different location, none of that was a surprise to the Colonials watching their cousins.

"They have taken down all but five of our devises on their floor," stated a young officer to the commander. They had known that they would lose their listening devises the moment they had started going down, what they had not expected was how fast they had been taken down. They had hoped for a couple of days but it had only taken minutes.

"Which ones are still up?" inquired the Commander

"The radiation alarms." stated the younger officer "That will tell us nothing."

"It tells us that they aren't trying to sneak in a nuke," countered the Commander as another Owl came in for a landing filling all the landing zones. Once again, the intelligence crew began taking photos, suddenly a beautiful woman came out of the back ramp. Unlike the others, they had seen she was not in a military uniform or a suit of some kind. Instead, she had on jeans and a tight t-shirt.

"Who is that?" inquired the younger as he zoomed in on the woman; he snapped a photo as General Shepard walked into the frame. The next photo showed the two of them kissing.

"Must be his wife," reported the Older as something unexpected happened, two kids one maybe 13 or 14 the other at most seven came out of the Owl. The younger one, the girl ran up to the general who picked her up causing her to laugh. She looked like older woman who had come out of the Owl only with the General's darker hair. The older boy seamed to ignore the General; instead, he was looking down at a hand held computer just like any teen in the colonies.

"His family?" inquired the younger

"A safe bet and this is a great thing," noted the Commander with a smile "It means they have trust in us or else why bring their children down here. Their only way off world are their transports and there is no way they could escape our anti-aircraft systems around the capital."

Little did they know that not only did the Tau'ri have a way off world without the Colonials knowing but some already had left Caprica. Walking down on of the corridors toward the Asgard Core was Jack O'Neill. The door opened atomically giving him access to the core room.

"Greetings O'Neill." said a Holographic representation of the dead Asgard Thor. The short thinned armed and legged hologram was a perfect likeness of Thor. The hologram even faked breathing for some reason. "How can I help you this day?"

"Thor, question did the Asgard ever have a battle against a Goa'uld named Ares?" inquired O'Neill to the hologram, the hologram blinked which was a sign that it was going through the databases to find the data.

"I am sorry O'Neill could you be clearer, there has been multiple battles between the Asgard and the Goa'uld during the multiple wars we had with them. There has been 196 battles between the Asgard and Goa'uld Ares or the system lords who he worked for." stated the Thor hologram as O'Neill placed his head in his palm.

"How about a battle on a planet called Kobol?"

"There is no planet or location in the database called Kobol." reported Thor "So I cannot use that to narrow the field. Do you have anything that could help me narrow the search?"

"It is said you fought Ares on Kobol around two thousand years ago." Reported O'Neill as Thor blinked.

"I am sorry once again O'Neill but two thousand years ago the Asgard launched multiple military operations in multiple parts of this Galaxy against the Goa'uld including operations against Ares or the System Lord he worked for." explained Thor "I cannot use this to narrow the search."

"Sir, I know it's a pain in the ass," explained the officer in charge of the computer core "The Asgard had a strange way of dating battles."

"How so?" inquired O'Neill

"How should I say this?" said the officer as he thought about it "While we would call the entire battle of Gettysburg a single battle the Asgard would break it down into not only day but by hours, location and the people fighting. Each one would be its own battle and would get its own log entrée."

"That sounds confusing as hell," stated O'Neill

"It's the Asgard." countered the officer with a shrug.

"If you had a better date of the battle or the location of the planet it may be useful in locating the information you want." stated Thor "Ares was a major general to the system lord Zues which my people destroyed after a long protracted war. As his right hand general Ares took part in almost every battle in the war."

"Sir maybe if you tell me what you want I'll send an inquest to the team of historians looking through the database back on Earth. They may have better luck," offered the officer as O'Neill lowered his head in defeat before telling the officer what he was looking for. "Send the information to General O'Neill ask him to inquire about it to Teal'c and the other Jaffa maybe they know something."

"Sir couldn't you ask that yourself, he is your father isn't he?" inquired the Officer only to get a death glare from O'Neill. "Sorry sir, I'll send the request."

Almost an hour drive outside of Caprica City state the Colonial Zoo, the zoo was two times the size of any zoo on Earth at almost 300 acres that included a massive Aquarium and was home to just under 10,000 animals. The entire zoo had been closed for days and a massive cleaning operation had begun to make the place ready to be the site of the welcoming feast. Military Police had the whole park sealed off and the best chefs in the colonies had come to prepare the traditional meals for the Tau'ri and those colonials lucky enough to get one of the 1,500 tickets to the main event at the center of the zoo. The entire zoo staff was on edge as they watched a black aircraft come in for a landing at the front gate.

"Remember everyone be on your best behave." Said the Zoo's Chief Zoologist as the back ramp of the Tau'ri transport lowered and a tall woman dressed in a pair of khaki shorts and a green shirt stepped off. She had her long black hair pulled back and her skin was almost as black as the craft. She walked over toward the gathering before offering her hand to the Chief Zoologist.

"Hello, I am Rachel Bush of the Columbus Zoo and Aquarium," said Rachel with a warm smile.

"Mike Gant, Chef Zoologist of the Colonial Zoo. Thank you for coming." said Mike as took the Rachel's hand.

"Sorry about dropping this on you so late." said Rachel "I know political leaders can be a pain but they want these animals to be part of the welcoming ceremony tonight."

"Not a problem in fact we have planned for this in designing our zoo." explained Mike as Rachel blinked. "Let me show you."

With that, they headed off into the massive zoo past the welcoming statues of multiple different animals, which framed the entrees, and past a long line of gift shops, which was around the exit. It took them a while but soon they found themselves in a large circle opening with multiple paths leading out of it. All around them people where setting up tables and chefs where setting up their open-air kitchens so that all could see them at their work.

"This is the main focal point of the zoo, from here guest can go any part of the zoo." Explained Mike "Also this is where most of the living symbols of the colonies are."

"Most?" inquired Rachel

"Well the world fish of every colony is at the Aquarium." Explained Mike "I do pray you didn't bring your world fish."

"We don't have one," admitted Rachel as the Colonials blinked. Rachel caught the stunned looks "What?"

"Well it is traditional in the colonies to have a world land animal, Fish and bird. Something to do with honoring different Lords of Kobol, no one really knows why or cares that much." Explained Mike "We have habitats here for all the land animals and the birds are in Aphrodite's garden over there."

Rachel looked and there in the center of the massive clearing was a large house with the golden statue of a beautiful woman on the outside. One of her arm was outstretched and multiple golden birds sat on her hand as if they were singing to her.

"Well maybe I should have been clearer, we don't have a world fish but we do have a world sea animal." explained Rachel "It's a sea mammal and we didn't bring it."

"Oh, that is fine maybe in time you can bring it and we can put it on display," offered Mike as Rachel tried not to laugh at the idea of someone trying to hold a Blue Whale in captivity.

"That is an issue for another day, may I see where you plan to put the animals?" inquired Rachel as she was lead toward an empty habitat, it did not look much different from one she saw on Earth. It had multiple trees and a large ditch near the viewing platform so that animals could not get to the people.

"We heard you were bringing five animal species so we prepared five habits but this is the nearest one." Explained Mike "The other nearby habitats have the animal symbols of the other colonies, this was the spare one we used to move animals to when we had to work on their pens. However it was designed so that Earth symbol could join with its cousin."

"Well you miss understood, we brought five animals four of whom are the same species and the other is our world bird." explained Rachel as Mike smiled. In truth, it had taken a lot to convince the Tau'ri government to bring the animals in the first place and bringing multiple different species would have increased the trouble with the different kind of food. Space was still limited on the warships, after this most of the ships would be heading straight to Atlantis. "This habitat seems to be prefect for them."

"Wonderful we can put the bird in with the other birds of the colonies." said Mike as he lead Rachel off to the building in the center. When they entered Rachel saw a problem almost at once, the building was a massive indoor garden. The roof was nothing but glass and multiple different small birds flew around singing to each other. Flowers of all different kind where in full bloom filling the air with their scents. In a normal situation, it would have been a wonderful addition to any zoo but it would be a massive problem now. She looked over to a nearby wall and saw the same type of signs she would see in any zoo. It showed a photo of the animal and a short description, she noticed at once all the birds where small song birds, the largest the size of a blue jay.

"We have a set up a separate area so that visitors can see your world bird when they come and don't have to go hunt it down." Explained Mike with a smile "In time your bird will sing along side its cousin."

"All your world birds are songbirds?" inquired Rachel, as she looked at all the small birds flying around and singing their sweat music.

"Yes, it is said that Aphrodite had a garden full of singing birds on Kobol and that the singing birds could cause people to fall in love forever." Explained Mike "We actually had to kick out a wedding party which was supposed to use this place tonight for you all."

If the bird that the new Tau'ri government had decided to be the symbol of all the nations where to be free here it would not be singing with these birds, it would be hunting these birds and making meals out of them.

When the nations of the Tau'ri where debating what animals to take as their symbols it was decided to help avoid the appearance that one of the big eight powers was really in charge their national animals were removed from the list of candidates. This meant that the American Bald Eagle, the English Lion, the Indian Tiger, the Russian Brown Bear, the Brazilian Jaguar, Germany Black Eagle, the French Gallic Rooster and the Chinese Panda had all been taken off the list. The new animal symbols of the Tau'ri would be different so that all could be equals under them.

"Can I see the other symbols of your colonies?" inquired Rachel as she was led off to see the other living symbols of the 12 colonies. She was led around the ring of habitats and what she saw was animals that where both strangely similar to animals either from Earth or its history but all were somewhat different.

There was the Aerilon Trihorn, which looked like almost like an African Black Rhino only it had a large frill which had two extra horn like a Triceratops. Beside that was an Aquaria Ice Bear which looked almost like an copy of a polar bear only with more bluish fur, then there was Scorpia Giant tree bear, it looked like a giant ground sloth in Earth history. Then there was the Caprican Tiger which was smaller than its earth cousin and more of a yellow tone. The Gemenon Swamp dragon was a cross between giant Komodo dragon and a saltwater crocodile. The Leonis Lion looked like a match of the African Lion only the males had no mane and the Picon Panther and the Canceron Jaguar was a perfect match to Earth's version. The Libran Screamer Bird looked like an animal out of Earth's history the extinct Tear Birds. The Virgon Elk also looked like its earth cousin only with much larger antlers. The last two animals flanked the habitat of the animals from Earth, which were currently being unloaded from the owl. They were also considered the most holy and religious symbolic animals the Tauron Bull and the Sagittarian Mountain Ram.

The Tauron bull was larger than even the largest cattle ever to walk Earth the Aurochs. The Aurochs had just been brought back thanks to project Noah and the Asgard cloning technology just like other long dead animals like the Tasmanian Tiger and the Woolly Mammoth which had only a few hundred members still alive in Siberia when the Asgard came to Earth thousands of Earth ago. The Sagittarian mountain Ram was a much larger version of Bighorn sheep, which could be seen in multiple places on Earth.

"Well what do you think?" inquired Mike

"Lovely animals," stated Rachel as the animal crates holding the animals from Earth arrived.

"Well let's get these animals ready for the show," said Mike as he looked at the five crates, four of them where about the same size while the fifth was smaller.

A couple hours later inside the Presidential estate, Adar along with most of the Cabinet was having a short meeting before they headed toward the welcoming dinner at the Colonial Zoo. Because of all the traffic on the roads around Caprica City, they had decided to go by Raptor, the Tau'ri where going in their owl transports. This was the first of many meetings which was going to take place, first thing in the morning the Military was going to do their briefing on the threat the Tau'ri posed but they needed some more time to study the new ships.

"They are hiding something about their religion," stated the Genom member "They didn't bring a member of any of their holy orders down for the meeting."

"I agree that is strange, but I can understand their reasons on why they didn't." admitted Laura Roslin as the others looked at the former teacher. "They said they had a history of violence in their religious orders which explains why they don't bring an official member of their faith to the meeting."

"I hate to say this but Sectary Roslin may be correct," added Priestess Gologa as she took a breath "We have to remember that until the grand conference there was multiple times when our own holy orders almost fought each other. Earth may not have been so lucky."

"True." Admitted President Adar

"Also remember we have 9% of our population who don't believe in the Lords of Kobol but instead in only one god," added Laura Roslin as the others blinked at something they already knew. A sort of unspoken deal had been reached after the terrorist group the Soldiers of the One had been crushed. Those who believed in the only one god was left alone as long as they didn't break the laws or make any attempts to gain political power. True on two of the world's Sagittarian and Genom not believing in the Lords of Kobol was against the law but they were general ignored.

"Are you saying that Earth don't believe in the Lords of Kobol?" inquired the Sagittarian member

"We do not know why they were banished from Kobol in the first place, could their lack of faith be it?" inquired Priestess Gologa as the spiritual advisor to the President spoke up again.

"No, I would say that is highly unlikely but let's say they have a higher percentage of none believes say double ours at around 20%. Combine that with their different religious groups of the Lords of Kobol not coming together could explain why they have so many different nations and why they separated religion from their government." explained Roslin as Adar nodded his head.

"Yes, that would make a lot of sense," admitted Adar as he thought about it. If it was true and around 20% of the Tau'ri does not believe in the Lords of Kobol it could be a major political problem. Something that had to be dealt with the Sagittarians and the Gemenon would be outraged about it and the other colonies would not be happy either. In time however they would adapt to it and Earth would join with their cousin, having all the children of the Lords of Kobol together meant solving any issues that may come up. "I will talk to Doctor Woolsey in private maybe he can share something in private that he wouldn't be able to share in a meeting."

"Mr. President we need to get going." Said an aid

"Well Ladies and Gentlemen shall we get going." Confirmed Adar as the Cabinet stood up and headed toward the waiting Raptors.

It took only a few minutes but soon the Raptors where airborne and heading toward the zoo, Adar could not help but look down at the massive amount of people gathered on the mall and in the streets. Tonight was a night of celebration and they were going to put on the best show they possible could.

While the colonials where preparing to throw a party four Eagle fighters where on patrol just beyond the outer world of Mani in the Valhalla system. Just like in any system where the Tau'ri had a base there was always combat air patrol flying around the system.

"Phoenix flight this is Valhalla command we have three unknown contacts coming in at grid 14F." came some nameless voice at Valhalla command center.

"This is Phoenix lead, confirm contact at grid 14F heading there now." Confirmed the American pilot as he lead his flight of four Eagles outside their normal patrol route which ran between the outer defense stations and headed toward the unknown contact.

"Lead I have visual on the contact." said Phoenix three "It's a rock."

"A rock?" inquired Phoenix lead as he moved into visual range and yes there is was. A small asteroid maybe ten feet by five feet with a postmarked surface, there was two more nearby about the same size. The other eagles where checking them out as he did a quick scan with this Eagles scanners. It picked up what he expected mostly Iron ore and other elements nothing of note. Just floating leftovers from when the planets formed.

"Valhalla command, this is Phoenix lead we found the contacts all natural, small asteroids." Reported Phoenix lead

"Phoenix there hasn't been any asteroid mapped in that area before." stated ground control

"Must have drifted in from either another system or a very distance orbit," reported Phoenix Lead as the ground controlled thought about it for a moment.

"Yes, that is it.," confirmed Ground control "We need you to map it so we can add it to the database."

"No problem command." said Phoenix leader as he uploaded his information to the battle network, within moments the flight of the asteroid was mapped and it was determined to not be a threat or worth capturing for mining. With that done phoenix moved off and headed back on patrol. What the Eagle Pilots did not know was that they were being photographed.

Hidden inside the Asteroid where multiple cameras and wireless broadcast capture systems, along with a small jump drive, which would deactivate once the jump was done. These Asteroids had stated out as nothing more then left over pieces of rock but had been transformed into spy systems for Colonial Intelligence.

With the eagles gone these flying spy asteroids would pass through the Tau'ri defense line and begin their mission of taking photographic and capturing wireless broadcasts all of which would be saved to multiple hard drives. After leaving the system their jump drives would reactivate and they would begin the multiple day journey back to the waiting Battlestar.

Well I hope you liked this Chapter and the two intelligence operations done by both the Colonials and the Tau'ri. Now until next time I hope you keep reading. Thanks Wilkins75.