Disclaimer: I never have and never will own the characters, ideas or anything else based on these 2 shows. The TV studios that produced them, do. This story is also free as it is a pet project. Enjoy.

"Talking"

"Thinking"

"Wireless/communication"

"Speaking in a different language"

"Reading a text"

Chapter 16: The enemy you know…

Tobin system, seconds later

Marcus joined Vala at just leaning forward and observing the object in front of them.

"What the frak is that?" He asked her indirectly.

She answered, by pushing the copilot out of her seat and went to work to look at the data.

"If I'm not mistaken... it's the main reason Ra, the old System lord, was unbeatable for so long. Guess when he died, no one found this, but not for a lack of trying."

"Details!" Marcus was getting impatient. Ajax on the other hand wanted to see what she was looking at on the display, so he was a bit close to her face.

"Handsome... if you really need it, you should have told me sooner..."

Ajax was not embarrassed nor did he pay her any attention. Marcus knocked on the console to get her attention. "Ehm... well?"

She moved the displayed data to the holo display over the observation window so that it aligned with the target they were scanning. It was... a massive space station. But not of the type that was mass produced by the Goa'uld. It's size was what made it special. The display showed... the typical golden pyramid design as the main structure. That alone was around 11 kilometers tall, spreading out into four corners. At the base where the pyramid ends, the station expands in the form of a disk. At the point between the pyramid tips as well at their points, the disk, once it stops expanding, has eight connecting necks to large platforms, eight of them in total. Those platforms as well as the connecting necks, were full of areas that could be described as dry-docks.

And in fact they were as in some places half constructed Goa'uld ships were in those docks. They were in all eight of these platforms. From one point to the other this thing was almost 60 kilometers long. At the ventral part were at the four corner bulges, that Vala believed were the sub-light engines of this monster. But in between them, right under what would be the center of the pyramid at the bottom, was a circular opening with a blue light coming from its entrance. And it was... docked, for a lack of a better description, to an asteroid.

"The sensors show the asteroid is 80% prometheon..." Ajax analyzed the data shown. "Makes sense."

"How so?" Marcus was no engineer, so he didn't get it.

"This ain't just a shipyard, it's its own foundry. Think about it. This thing must have a ferocious appetite. Not just for fuel, but construction material. So if it can just get the stuff from a nearby asteroid and refine it on the spot..."

"He's right." Vala agreed. "The stories said that Ra automated this place. Only a limited crew was needed. Sokar tried to counter him by industrializing Delmak, which worked, but while Delmak is well known, this... no one but Ra and his closest Jaffa servants knew about it. Guess Anubis found it. Makes sense too, since Anubis came out of nowhere after being presumed dead for a millennia. This place... he could have built up the force he had when he returned. Only thing holding him back then was man power. Or lack of it."

"So..." Marcus began piecing things together. "When that crisis hit, he hid it here for the aftermath?"

"Seems so."

"OK... so, 'expert'. Your take on this."

"Well... I can guess he upgraded it. I doubt he left anyone on it, since if he did, that person would have learned that Anubis is dead and used this station to his or her own advantage. At least no one conscious."

Everyone in the cockpit was... clueless as to what she meant. "What?" The pilot asked before anyone else.

"Right. Forgot you don't know. Goa'uld had a habit to leave a... emh, 'surprise' on their property if it was of any importance."

Marcus, thinking on how to approach this, needed any info he could get. "That being?"

"Assassins in stasis pods in hidden chambers. If the ship or station detects an unauthorized attempt at accessing the property of the Goa'uld, the pods wake the assassins up and... carnage ensues. Then there might be automated security systems, like force fields, higher gravity plating, corridors intentionally flooded with radiation... take your pick. And of course the annoying 'return home device'. One or several small devices planted in a ship designed to take over the entire network computer system and return the property to the owner, the ones taking the ship be damned."

Ajax was both impressed and disgusted by this. "The computer stuff is clever... but leaving their own people behind for clean up duty?"

Marcus too was disgusted. "You forget, they don't think like we do. Little lady, you're our guide. What can we do?"

"Well, the 'return home thing' I can handle. Usually they're on the bridge, computer core or main engineering. But this thing is huge so there will be several of them. Once I find one, I can show you what to do if you find one yourself. As for the assassins or defenses... we'll have to do that the hard way. Cause knowing Anubis, there's one more obstacle."

Several groaned at hearing that. "More?"

"Like most, Anubis as all Goa'uld, encoded his property."

Marcus casually points to the Lucian male technician with them. "That's why he and Ajax are here for."

"That's true." Ajax agreed. "I had some time to study their coding..."

"Yeah..." Vala straighten out and eyed Marcus. "Would be a valid argument, if it were ANY other Goa'uld. Not Anubis. He encodes his stuff in Ancient language and coding... good luck."

Silence followed. "Well that's fraked..."

"Yes, even I can't break that. Give me Ba'al or a Lucia ship and with time I can, this..."

Marcus stepped to the pilot. "I'm not ready to give up just yet. First things first. Comm, call Picon, give them the update."

The copilot went to work... only for static to follow. "Sir, something's wrong. Long range communication isn't working." He then checked the array status. "It's not anything on our end. We're being jammed."

"How can we be jammed if we're cloaked?" Marcus wondered.

"Unless it's a permanent jamming field..."

Marcus began pondering on his next move. They could leave, but not call from here. "We didn't come here to just leave. Lucian guy... Soren, right?"

"Yes... sir?"

"Get to the sensor station, we need all the data we can get." He did as told. "Now, get us closer."

The pilot also did as ordered. "Not so easy with all the crud in orbit."

"Is Al'kesh beta following us?"

"Affirmative sir."

"Ah... yes, about that..." Vala pulled the pilot's arm from the controls. "One small detail you should know when it comes to Anubis. Just to be sure."

Vala had this 'playing innocent' face on. Marcus knew something will be up. "And?"

"Before we go closer, I should mention that Anubis was known as the only Goa'uld that had somehow developed sensor technology that could see through Goa'uld cloaks." She started playing with her hair as Marcus and the other officers were not happy with this. "What?"

Marcus turned to Soren for confirmation, which he gave him with a nod.

"So any cloak is useless?"

"Well, that's the point. I don't know. He only managed to used those sensors on planets. In fact no Anubis ship or station had them, only planetary bases."

Marcus' people began small talks with each other if they should risk it. Marcus continued poking. "This ain't a planet, but a space station."

"The size of a small moon!" Vala replied. "Look, all I'm saying, if things go wrong..."

"Yeah, I get it. Your covering your ass." Marcus stopped her defensive rant. "Good info, no matter how you put it. And if things go wrong, it's on me, but we didn't come here to return empty handed. Jasmine, you heard all of that?"

"I did, boss. We're for a go."

"So am I, but we do this smart. Ha'tak alpha goes in alone, you stay behind. Should things go wrong, you return back to HQ."

"Sir..., it would be better if we go in first..."

"I'm not arguing with you on this. But..." He turned to Ajax, Vala and Soren. "Any of you want to ring to beta, now's the time."

Ajax put his equipment down as he paused his inspection of it. "You know me. I'm not letting you go in alone."

"Fine. Now either Vala or Soren go to the other ship, I'm not putting all our eggs into one basket here." Vala and Soren looked at each other. Without saying anything, Soren began leaving for the rings as Vala remained at the pilot's side. "Now that that's settled..." He inspected the virtual display of the Al'kesh. The circle around it was as he now understood, the cloaking field indicator. Soren had to slightly extend it prior to departure as the Colonials were not without a backup plan. Outside the Colonials used a rather low-tech tactic to work for them. They used the magnetic attachment legs of raptors and vipers to their advantage and had two vipers and one raptor attached to the Al'kes'h belly. Just enough extra mass and outside profile to still allow the ship to cloak and use the hyperdrive. But they were unmanned and would have to be accessed with spacesuits. "Beta, we're going to dump our outside cargo and leave it here for now. Should not be a problem if they're powered down so the mines don't make a fuss..."

"Acknowledge. Will keep an eye on them."

The ship shook a bit. "That's it, Soren is on beta and the vipers and raptor are undocked. No change from the station." The co-pilot reported.

"Good." Marcus now took position between pilot and co-pilot space. "Take us in, slowly. Ajax, use the damn toys and keep an eye on everything. If that station scratches itself, I want to know."

"Yeah... I don't even know of half the things that I have to look for, but I'll do my best..." He sat on the floor in the back of the Al'kesh cockpit and began monitoring the sensor feed.

The pilot had to make some smaller adjustments due to the mines, but slowly they were getting closer.

"Anything?"

"Nothing boss. So far so good."

The fact the station was so large, the mine field and the fact the station was at the edge of an asteroid field orbiting the gas giant made this trip more interesting as the sheer size of the station made it look like they were already there.

"Hm..."

Marcus kept an ear open for anything his people said. That hm from Ajax sounded worrying. "What?"

"Something's up. Either because were getting closer or... shit! Pull back! Tacyon surge! Localized!"

Vala understood that meaning. "We're being scanned. It knows were here!"

"Pilot, you heard them!" Marcus wasted no time. Why have 'experts' on a mission if you don't listen to them, right. Only it was already too late.

"Marcus, that thing's flaring up! Power signature's through the roof!" Ajax shouted. The Al'kesh was already turned, so the station could not be seen, but... several plasma shots passed it.

"I noticed! Evasive maneuvers, get us out of here!"

But try as he might, the pilot had issued dodging the incoming attack. "Frak, this thing's learning my patterns!"

"Boys! More problems!" Vala added to the crisis. "The damn mines are moving! But towards us!"

"Can the shield handle a mine impact?"

"I think it can handle it more than the incoming fire." Vala was already thinking ahead. "But not by much!" She tried to hold on the pilot chair as the internal dampeners could not completely compensate the g-forces the pilot was now pulling off.

"You heard her, switch to shields!" Marcus ordered the co-pilot. "And get beta on the horn..."

"Yea, we're being jammed now, even short range is not responsive." Ajax gave even more bad news. "My guess is it's part of the targeting system... this Anubis really wanted to keep this place a secret."

Vala gasped. "Uh, oh..."

"What?" Marcus didn't think things could get worse.

The pilot noticed it too. "Sir, the mines are now all converging to us!"

Marcus saw it well. The fraking mines were now on them, but completely ignoring the station!

Ajax was done at his post and joined Marcus at the pilot area. "I can only guess Anubis high-jacked the damn mines and programmed them to ignore the station!"

"Can we make a hyperspace jump while in here?" Marcus was running out of options.

"In this mess, not advisable. And once we do try it, the station can get an easier lock on us!" Vala commented.

"Unless anyone has a better idea..." He now saw beta as they too were under fire and clearing the field. But they were in more trouble as several mines apparently already hit them. "Fraker, the damn station was playing possum! We were in weapons range all the time! That's it, jump us, now! Beta can see us doing it and follow!"

"But..."

The ship shook as a mine impacted on the dorsal hull. "Do I have to say please!?"

Not wanting to say anything against the Cerberus CO, the pilot obliged, setting a course to the other planet they inspected before coming here. As they entered hyperspace, it all seemed to go smooth. For a few seconds...

Alarms in the pilot seat went off. "Sir! Hyperdrive is overloading!"

"What? How..." The ship was thrown out of hyperspace and was now adrift. Marcus now saw the engineering console entirely in the color red. "Don't tell me..."

The co-pilot confirmed his fears. "Engines are gone. We have sub-lights only. Sir..." The beta Al'kesh appeared a few thousand kilometers from their position, also adrift.

"How?" Marcus wanted some answers. "What happened?" He noticed their wireless functioning again. "Jamine, you there?"

"We're here, sir. Barely. The damn station opened up on is a few minutes after you left. Then when we made our way to the edge of the mine field and shut the cloak off, they swarmed us!"

"Similar here. We suspect the station engaged us once we got too close. Your status?"

"We're stuck here, sub-lights only. FTL engines overloaded. And the mines took out some systems, life support included. We have only 30 minutes of breathable air here."

Slamming his fist on the console, Marcus tried to contain his rage. His gamble didn't pay off. He severely underestimated Anubis. "We're guessing the FTL failure was no accident."

"Soren thinks so as well. Some form of FTL jamming equipment. This fraker thought of everything. FTL comm is still jammed, engines are gone and we're stuck here now..."

"We'll discuss it once we dock both ships to each other. What about our outside cargo?"

"The mines destroyed the raptor and vipers you dumped. Ours are still OK as far as we know. We'll have to inspect them."

"Good. Casualties?"

"None."

"OK, once you dock, we'll go at it from there. Out." Turning to the cockpit crew again, Marcus started with the pilot. "How long to return there and get to the edge of the mine field but not enter it?"

"A few hours, sir. Short or not, this FTL jump threw us clear of the station."

Crossing his arms, Marcus gave Ajax, his second in command on this ship and Vala a look to follow him. Once in the main cargo hold where they had stayed for the past few days, he inspected the equipment they brought with them. "Miss Mal Doran, that Kull armored suit ready?"

Nagala allowed her to take it for this mission, even if he bought it from her. "Yes? But even with it, one cannot survive for long in space with that on..."

"Wasn't thinking about that. Pack it in. And anything else you think we might need on that station."

"OK?" Vala went to work, puzzled.

"Boss. How do we get on that thing. It 'politely' already showed us the door." The Major asked his CO.

"Oh frak no." Ajax realized what Marcus planned. "I hate you already."

Marcus grinned. "How long since you had your zero-g training?"

Kobol, Colonial base, same time

Atkins and Adama were walking outside the pyramid entrance into the main Colonial camp. "You did a good job, General."

"You too, Admiral. Getting here ahead of time... we could use any help we can get."

Bill saw the work still in progress. Just at the pyramid entrance there were ditches dug and weapons emplacements positioned. They used both the Goa'uld stationary staff weapons and their own high caliber explosive shell firing turrets with protective armor plantings and armored glass. They added the same protection for the gunners for the Gua'uld weapons, which for the Colonials, was a real flaw in design of the parasites. Of course the Colonials cared for their men and women in the military. The snakes not so much. In between the turrets were also portable sam sites and every now and then a communication dish. To Bill's left was the Colonial encampment made out of mostly tents. But everything outside was of not critical importance and once the fighting would begin, all the solders can be moved inside anyway. Past the encampment was another trench and fortifications, sand bags and barbed wire included. The Colonial barbed wire was, to counter centurions, under an electrical current, so the solders knew to avoid them as well. To Bill's right was the hangar entrance, also heavily fortified, but that entrance, once closed off, would be able to take punishment a lot easier than the main pyramid entrance. About half a kilometer from the camp was where the real jungle began. The Engineers mowed the tall grass between the jungle and the camp to take any cover away from the enemy and also began using construction vehicles to chop trees down for extra blockades. In the jungle itself they began placing anti centurion mines, designed to react to metallic presence, not pressure. Mines were placed even kilometers away at the shield perimeter. Advanced tech or not, the General took no chances.

Now directly in front of Bill was the vehicle park with mostly Bloodhounds, but the landing area next to it for raptors was also buzzing with activity. The Colonial APCs were also being used all over the place. The officers were getting a good lay of the land, so they patrolled the jungle in them. Most were of the general design with the anti centurion turret, but three designs were different. One with a missile launcher for anti air defense, one for support roles, like mine laying, the last with a dradis dome where the turret usually was.

In fact it looked like this in all of the outer bunkers and bases the Colonials were now occupying, only in a smaller scale that in the main complex.

"I can say, you were busy and productive here."

"Thank you. But am I glad you took the orbit from me. How's it looking there?"

"Once we get all the extra vipers we just got from you stowed away, the Galactica, three Ha'tak's plus all on the planet, we'll have 400 vipers plus change and around 100 raptors, right?"

"Something like that. Still inadequate cover, once they come in en force."

"Which they will. I think the only hope we have right now, realistically, to prevent Cavil to nuke the planet, since we can really only make sure this place survives, is if we use Cavil's one weakness against him."

"That is?"

"Vanity. Ego. Rage. Once they come, I intent to taunt him. Make him focus on me and our space forces. If he does that and not just jump in, nuke and go out, we have a chance to minimize the number of nukes that can bypass our defenses. I mean with the capital ships we have and the new defense against his suicide tactic he has employed against us, we can win any direct battle. But the issue will be intercepting all raiders and nukes. If we can piss him off sufficiently to abandon that tactic..."

"You think he'll fall for that?"

"I got a good description on his character from the rebels. Yes... I think he will. How about here?"

"Well, we can hold them indefinitely if the shield holds. But I don't trust it."

"Hm... I also saw that iris was finally installed on the ring."

"Yes, finally. Felt naked without that thing. And the FTL jammer on your ship? We got our working hours ago."

"Should be installed within the hour, according to the engineers. That girl is becoming really handy, I hear."

Atkins was now amused. "If for no other reason that she makes Baltar look stupid."

They heard a commotion behind them. It was Nagala with a military escort. "Sir!" They both saluted and he returned the gesture.

"At ease. So... calm before the storm?"

"Something like that. Exchanging notes and tactics." Atkins explained.

"Good. Bill... I may have one more bonus for you."

Bill could really use anything right now. "Sir?"

"I have some WMD experts and jump drive experts with me. The WMD people will take the remaining three warheads on the Earth Prometheus off and install them in our delivery systems. Which brings me to the FLT experts. Gentlemen... You'll have to sacrifice seven raptors for this." They both looked a bit confused. "We're going to use Cavil's tactic against him. Seven raptors will be modified for remote control usage. Then a new targeting system will be added and the thing will be packed with nukes. Three of them with the Earth arsenal."

They both got it. "Suicidal raptors, just... without any real suicide?"

"Exactly Bill. As said, remote controlled. Atkins ground control center will use four, you the remaining three. No point to leave all of them to just one of you."

"Understood, sir." Bill got that part as well. If one of them dies, he on the Galactica or Atkins on Kobol, and their command and control ability dies with them, they'll still have some to use by the other.

"Speaking of control Bill... that XO of yours..."

"Sir... I know it's much to ask for, but for the moment, I would request Saul Tigh remain my XO. And... so far all of the Final five are on the level. I..."

"The point being 'so far'. Look, Bill. Your gut is scoring ten out of ten so far, but..." Snapping his fingers, Colonial MPs stepped forward. "These people will be stationed on Galactica, to keep an eye on... ehm, 'them'. Also..." The MPs stepped aside behind Nagala to reveal Baltar in the middle of the group. "Where is the Cylon you took with you?"

"Still on the Galactica. I was waiting for your approval."

"Not yet. Dr. Baltar, you and I have an appointment with this 'rebel representative'."

"I... yes, Admiral."

"Also, you'll take a look at what the Galactica people did when they added the alien gear to their ship and if they will install the new addition to your satisfaction. I expect you to remain professional."

"I intend to."

Nagala didn't respond. What Baltar intends to do and what he actually does are not always the same. "General, continue with the preparations. Adama, with us."

As they went inside again, they got to the transporter room, Nagala had to ask. "I manage to overhear some of your conversation. Tell me the entire thing as well."

Bill did just that and explained his plan.

"Hm... a good plan. Not the best, but we lack anything better. Where's your son?"

"Waiting on the Prometheus."

"Fine. Tell him, he'll get some company for those warheads."

They reached the room and stepped on the platform, Bill, Nagala and Baltar first. Seconds later, they were on the Galactica. The landing pod with the upgrades was not far away. "This way, sir." Bill motioned the Colonial Fleet Commander.

As they reached the sealed off landing strip with the 'improvements', Baltar spotted Caprica, who was keeping her distance from the alien gear as to not aggravate any Colonial, but still inspected it from afar.

She spotted them. "Gaius..." She controlled herself. No time for that now. "Admirals."

"Miss Caprica. It's time we talk directly. Get the Final five on the ship together. There's much to discuss."

Colonial expedition fleet, deep space, Cylon resurrection HUB, same time

In a resurrection chamber, Helo, Commander Arkhipov and several Colonial and Cylon representatives were standing either in the room around a resurrection tub or just outside. Inside the tub was the body of a One.

"So how long does this usually take?"

"Depends on the personality, amount of information we want to give this Cylon, so on. Don't worry, any moment now." Sharon calmed Helo down. He and the Colonial officers had many questions for this Cavil they were freeing from the boxing facility. Not that the Cylons themselves didn't have them either.

And in fact, the Cavil shot out of the water and filled his new lungs with air.

"Welcome back." D'Anna said first, with a hint of anger in her voice. She may despise the humans, but Cavil's model is not far from that as well.

He whipped the liquid from his face and took his first look around in a long time. "Well, this is a surprise." He took in everyone in the room. "So, Two's, Three's, Six's, Eight's... Centurions with clearly having their talent inhibitor removed... OK, Guardians? That's new. And a lot of Colonials. Let me guess, joining forces to deal with my brothers?"

It was decided that D'Anna would be the one to talk here for the intro, so she did. "You always were clever."

"Ah, my dear, so venomous. I can only imagine you found yourself in an impossible situation. Your model would not trust the humans unlike the others and my brothers than stab you... I can relate."

"Oh, can you?" Was the sarcastic response.

"Indeed I can." He explained to them his time among the humans. Mostly in that training camp, with Anders. How those experiences changed him. How he was boxed because of his radical new views. "So, I can only guess the HUB is now yours and I'm here to answer questions."

"Why else would we bother resurrecting your wrinkly old ass."

"Yes, indeed. But could I get decent first, without an audience, if at all possible. Then ask away."

They did as asked and emptied the room as he put a robe on. They moved to one of the refurbished conference rooms. One of the places that they restored after the battle. He sat down and all eyes were on him. "So, Final Five, I should begin with them?"

The defining silence told him everything. So he did just that. Where they came from. How they ended the first war. How his model betrayed them. Yes, Anders knew a lot and already told them, but he was still not aware of everything. It was arriving to him piece by piece, but Cavil knew everything. Or most of it anyway.

"So, what else do you want to know?"

"Earth. The 13th Earth. Nagala wants' to know." Helo spoke up before D'Anna could respond.

"Do you mind, human. I'm asking the questions here." She reprimanded him.

"Oh, don't be like that, dear. You must be as curious as the rest. Truth be told, that's one of the few things I actually don't know. The reason being: My model didn't care for that information. All I know is this: Their journey led them past something they called the Lion head nebula, a planet where the 13th tribe long ago build the temple of the Five and found something called the eye of Jupiter... I think. Then Kobol, Then the Colonies. But I do know it can't be that far from Kobol."

"Why?" A Colonial Commander asked.

"Well, their jump drive was barely working, so they used it sparingly. They relied on relativistic speed. That's how they made that 2000 year journey and not age much."

All with navigation skills picked up on that. Sharon eyed Helo. "Is it in that gate address list you have on Kobol?"

Helo shrugged. "Don't know. Above my pay grade. But he did say it's a nuclear wasteland. So if our guys dial that, they'll know."

Cavil got a bit curious, but knew better than to ask questions, to which he'll not get any answers. "So Kobol? I can guess were on our way there. And I can also guess my model wants' to nuke it." He didn't get an immediate response, but could read the expressions. "Listen, you don't trust me, I can't blame you. Not after all of this. But at least give me the basics on what's going on."

Pegasus galaxy, Orbit over Lantea, same time

The Daedalus went into defensive positions as Atlantis entered a stable orbit.

John was still sitting in the command chair. "Daedalus, buy me a few minutes until I get this star drive activated."

"Make it quick, sensors show a distortion approaching and growing in size. Our Asgard advisor believes at least two hives with escort."

"Right, you heard that Meredith! Haul ass!"

"For god's sake, stop calling me..."

"Rodney!" It was Elizabeth from the ring room. They were all in the comm link. "Focus on the issue!"

The command chair reacted and a holo display appeared over him. "We got company."

In space in high orbit above Atlantis, the vanguard of the Wraith appeared. Three hives and double that in cruisers and triple that in destroyers. The moment they arrived, they launched swarmed of darts like a cloud, protecting them.

The Daedalus didn't even bother launching their 302's or launching any missiles or WMD's. No point. They'd get intercepted and swarmed in no time.

But Atlantis did respond. The Tollan upgrades went to work. Yes, the ion cannons were never designed to combat something like this, but up-scaling them and incorporating them into the cities power grid had a positive effect for the city's defense.

The Daedalus did the same as they both ignored the darts as well as the hives. The darts were too small to use an anti capital ship weapon against them. Like swatting a mosquito with a tank gun. Their point defense systems however did engage them. Even Atlantis got those as well. As for engaging the hives, also pointless. They would need to focus fire on a soft spot to do any critical damage in a short amount of time. But the hive pilots were not stupid, only exposing their most heavily armored parts as well as getting great cover from the darts and escorts. If engaging the darts with these weapons was overkill, engaging the hives with them was underpowered. And the drones would be used only if they run out of any other option, as they could not make more of them and if they escape, they don't need to take the Wraith out here and now. So they focused on the cruisers and destroyers.

Sheppard now felt the city shake as it got under fire from the hives. On his holo-display, he saw where the city was getting attacked from, but the shields were unaffected by the fire. The ZPM's however were as the strain on the shield grid demanded more power from them. "McKay, any day now!"

"We're working on it! This thing hasn't flown in 10 millennia! You can't rush this!"

"Tell that to the Wraith!" He noticed the status of the two 304's. The Tollan ships went ahead to secure their new planet. But two more wouldn't have made a difference here anyway. But John noticed something else. The 304's shields were dropping, fast. They wouldn't risk any ZPM's on them as they were still in Atlantis. "Daedalus, fall back and enter hyperspace, your of no use here! You can't even dent those damn monsters!"

"Colonel, we won't leave you here to..." Caldwell stopped for a bit as his ship just got a full broadside."Damn... McKay, how much longer for god's sake!?"

"A few minutes, I need to bypass the main power grid, this thing's been under water for too long..."

"You got five minutes, Rodney. Deadalus, get out of here, I'm using the drones."

"Colonel!"

"Elizabeth, don't argue with me! If nothing else, I can take their initiative from them!" The display changed to the targeting system of the city. The additionally installed weapons were not under the command chairs control, but the original were. "I'll use as few as possible."

As the 304's retreated behind Atlantis and entered hyperspace, the entire Wraith force now focused on Atlantis. The city was gaining altitude, but was getting encircled by the swarm of smaller ships.

"Time to thin the herd..." Atlantis launched its drones. Five short columns of glowing lights that spread out in every direction. And the Wraith officers already knew that this was not good for them. So they used their typical tactic against this. To sacrifice as many darts as they could. Every destroyed dart via drone depleted the droned energy reserve a bit. Sooner or later every drone runs out. This way the Wraith sacrifice the peasants to keep the hives intact. Now the two swarms, one of darts, the other of drones, began dancing with each other. The dart swarm was exponentially bigger, but shrinking. All the while the Wraith capital ships and Atlantis kept exchanging fire with their energy weapons.

John realized what the darts were doing, so he adapted, trying to get as many drones past the darts to engage the cruisers and hives. "McKay!"

"I'm trying! Much of this damage was not seen while it was submerged!"

"John, Narim may have a temporary solution."

"I'm all ears, as McKay is unreliable right now."

"Hey, now wait just a minute..."

"Rodney, grownups talking! So what's the plan?"

Narim joined the conversation. "The phase-shifting device. We already have it and the stealth-mode generator from a gate ship..."

"Puddle jumper!" John corrected him.

"Whatever. The point is, we can buy McKay time."

"I'm sorry, but while I may not be a scientist, I understood that the cloak needs the shield grid, so no shields. No shields in space means we all die!"

"We installed our own projectors for the phase shifting technology. It was not compatible with Atlantis. If we change the connection for the cloaking device from Atlantis shield grid to our device, we can get all three."

"Assuming they will be compatible."

"It's worth a try."

John grumbled. No matter what, they need Rodney to finish, so this doesn't cost them anything. "Get to it. But this will cost us more drones and..." The chair display changed to the sensors. "Crap. We got more company. Everything we were facing has just tripled." Yes, now they had seven hives plus escorts to deal with. Some of the drones did get through the dart defense and managed to destroy four cruisers and nine destroyers so far, but only lightly damage one hive. "That's it, sub-light are working at full capacity, I'm getting some distance between them and us!"

Atlantis began hauling ass with the Wraith in hot pursuit. But just when John thought the worst was over... "What... alert, hyperspace window forming...? Shit! Everyone, brace for impact!"

The city detected the next wave approaching. Apparently they altered course to intercept Atlantis as they were undoubtedly in contact with the Wraith already here. The issue was they calculated a bit too close...

In front of Atlantis a hive with the escorts appeared. And John could do nothing to stop or change course as Atlantis shields flared up again and literally rammed the massive hive. Yes, the city was more massive and larger, but not armored or designed for ramming action.

Internally the entire city shook and power fluctuated. John could see outside how a fireball engulfed the city as the hive's parts flew past it. But he also saw some damage bleed through and the shields now beginning to recover from the impact.

"Damn it, Sheppard! You trying to kill me!?"

"A hive rammed us! So get that damn engine fixed, McKay, or they might try again!"

"That ram caused more damage! Don't do that again!"

"They rammed us!"

"Just make sure that doesn't happen again!"

"Rodney, don't make me come down there and make you push this tub!"

A few minutes later and Atlantis was passing the systems asteroid belt, the ever growing Wraith fleet hot on their heels, fire being exchanged at long range.

"I think we're ready, Colonel."

"You think, Narim? Either it works or it doesn't. Will it!?"

"We never tested this combination, but simulations show..."

"Never tell me the odds! Elizabeth?"

"I'm for a go."

"Fine. Narim, punch it!"

His chair display showed something new. A new bubble appeared on the city icon. Again, the light flickered. Then everything settled down. The incoming fire stopped.

"OK... something definitely changed. Narim, the city shows a new image over the city icon and some writing I never saw before. Does that mean it worked?"

"Yes, Colonel. But it's still delicate. I'd recommend to alter course. To test it."

"Right." John did just that and adjusted the course. The Wraith didn't do that, but the main force continued on the original path. But they were launching smaller ships and darts in all direction, realizing that the city was cloaked. Just not phase shifted as well. "Rodney, Narim just bought you time."

"Great. Perhaps his holly Tollan presence can help us down there..."

"Rodney! He just saved this situation! Stop being you!"

As the comm quieted down, John assessed the situation. Until the star-drive is fully operational, they are not safe, no matter how the situation looks.

Picon HQ, security wing, same time

Sanders was both tired, pissed and generally in a bad mood. Two people were the reason for this. Kiva and Bellona.

He was just leaving the interrogation room where he left a now unconscious Kiva after slamming her head on the table several times. His bloody hands also pointed to how aggressive he was getting with her. Not as far as Cavil, but her defiance was really getting to him. Based on that, if had to be honest with himself, he was running out of ideas.

Moving past the other interrogation rooms that were empty, his goal the exit of the security complex to get some rest. But the last room he passed before the security check was not empty. Inside was the Colonial scientist now infected with that damn snake. He saw one of his fellow interrogators talking with it, probably getting nowhere. But he realized what was about to come. So he entered the monitoring room for this interrogation.

"Can I join you guys?" He asked the personnel observing this room.

"Sure, sir. Grab a seat. The best part's just about to come."

He did just that. On the other side of the one was armored glass the interrogator put on the table between himself and Bellona a small vial with blue liquid inside it, hermetically sealed, as it would become gaseous when broken.

Bellona remained unimpressed. "What's that suppose to be? Another form of threatening me, human?" She really loved mocking her interrogators, even if she'd not think they were something like that. Not even close.

"Something like that. But since we now know you don't care as long as you have one of us hostage, this will demonstrate that even if we can't make you talk or operate you out, you're not getting out of here. This is a Tok'ra symbiote poison." For the first time the Colonials saw something resembling fear in her eyes. "Break the seal and you die in seconds."

"You lie."

"Do I?" They managed to hack the entire undamaged database on the Al'kesh. No real useful data, except the Trust operations on Earth, which they could also give or sell to Earth, but what they also got were the effects of this poison. This Trust cell went to some of the planets they gassed to take pictures and samples. He pulled several printed pictures out and showed them to her. "According to the people who did this, they gassed several dozen planets. A few vials of this and anything within a radius of several kilometers of the ring that has a snake, dies."

Bellona inspected the pictures. She recognized the Jaffa and their markings. Even a lower ranking Goa'uld or two, based on their uniforms. "Even if this is not a ruse, I still refuse to talk, human. Go ahead. Kill me and 'her'. Cause as far as I see, this poison is lethal to the host as well."

"I never said I'd use it now. But to make sure you get it. If by any chance you manage to get out of those restraints and this room or you switch hosts... the moment we know, we gas the entire station. We placed several vials worth of this stuff in the main ventilation system. So you manage to get out of this, you die. And as for the good Doctor in your possession. We can't save everyone, as cold as this will sound. But for us the safety of our home supersedes the needs of one Colonial. The only question you have to ask yourself now is this: How comfortable is my stay here going to be. You talk, you get more than basic rations and this drab interrogation room." He stood up, leaving the pictures on the table but taking the vial with himself. Once at the door, he added. "Think about it, 'god'." He said the god word with real mocking intent, so much so that her eyes glowed with rage.

In the observation room, Sanders smirked. "Wow, that thing's pissed. We just derailed any escape plans."

Dauntless, algae planet, same time

The Earth 304 was now not alone in orbit any longer. Two days ago three Tollan ships arrived. While the bulk of the Earth fleet was getting much needed repairs, with at least half almost ready to depart again, the Tollans made good on their attempts to push the time table forward.

But what surprised the Dauntless and its crew was the type of ships that arrived. Only one of them was a 304. The other two were the first of the 400 series ever seen in operational status. Tolan engineers managed to persuade Earth designers to make many adjustments to the fleet plans. Among them was the naming system. To simplify the ability of ship class, small support ships in the range of up to 300 meters would be in the 300 series. Or in the Earth sea navy, destroyers and such. But fighters and bombers would also be included here. Everything below that was planned to be used for ground vehicles or ground support vehicles. The 400 series would then be the cruiser class from 301 meters and up. And the first 400 were a simple design. Just a really up-scaled 304 at 600 meters. Finally something that size wise and capacity could stand toe to toe to a Ha'tak. Of course the tech difference gave the human designed ships the edge, even against the Anubis class Ha'tak, now solely in the hands of their allies, the Jaffa.

And while the Tollans were more than willing to share some tech with the now human cooperation, some things were still off the table. They reversed engineered the Goa'uld cloaks and were now giving the specs and knowhow to be available to Earth and the other members. But their prized matter phasing was not part of this. Only their ships would get that.

Earth didn't protest. They both knew how touchy the Tollans were on those matters and also... they had to let them have something at least to feel like they preserved some dignity.

That was however not the end of the surprises. There were two more. One was the names of the ships. Tollan Legacy was the 304's name, named after the first world they evacuated years ago, due to their own mistakes. The two cruisers however... Tollanas Revenge and Tollanas Fury. Not something one would think the usually passive and conservative Tollans to do. But the names intended to state what the Tollans were intending to do with those that desecrated their old and new home again. The Lucians and still living Goa'uld will find a Tollan people with a new demeanor. One they would not like. And Earth was a bit afraid as well. Yes, they and the Tollans were on really good terms now, but what if some race or civilization will be encountered that will try to take advantage of the status of the galaxy or think they can step on Tollan toes? Prior to Anubis, the Tollans would just isolate themselves and not care... now... problems would arise.

As for the last shock, it was one even for Orina. One she didn't see coming. And was now working with him in the Fury's engine room, installing the power crystals and incorporating them into the ship systems. And the upgrade with the now plentiful crystals was rather easy. Even Earth scientist gave credit where credit was due. Tollans designed the ships to be easily upgradable.

So Orina and her Tollan brethren were busy, taking orders from... Ma'chello of all people. Earth gave him some leeway on what he does as long as he doesn't work for an enemy of theirs. Which would never happen as he wants the Goa'uld to burn, not work for them. So he was now in a way working for both Earth and the Tollans. And now had the backing of the Curia to actually issue orders to the Tollan military on the ships.

As Orina closed the last access panel with the crystal now snugly inserted in the systems there, one of many, she joined him at the main engineering console.

He was at it with the ships engineers adjusting the coding to accept the new modification.

"How does it look?"

"We're ahead of schedule. I predict the coding will be to Tollan standards within the hour or two. You plan to give this to the Earth ship as well or..."

"They'll get it. We offered our expertise and we intend to keep our promise."

"Hm..."

"I understand your distain for my people. I really do. But holding a grudge is at this point counterproductive. We learned from our mistakes. I..." She inhaled to gather her thoughts. He saw this was difficult for her. "For me of all people. I was raised in the traditional way. So I was raised to think of us as better. I was... we were wrong. When those like you or Earth came for our help, we disregarded you all. Saying your problems were yours to solve. Thank the maker Earth didn't think the same once it was our time to ask for help." She realized she was almost babbling. "Don't get me wrong. I still think sharing technology with people not ready for it is a bad idea but giving help can be more than just giving weapons to someone."

Ma'chello smiled for the first time he was on board. "Now that I agree with." He checked the console and the progress. "What do you think? Once fully incorporated into ship systems... overall efficiency improvement for all systems will be... between 80% to 95% when compared to now?"

"I'd say 102% for power systems, 88% for tactical systems, 71% for propulsion and 56% for all the rest."

"Yep... you really are a Tollan... and his daughter."

She stopped assisting him and glared at him. "What's that suppose to mean?"

"There's that nice little Earth word for it. Overachiever. Or was it perfectionist? No... Ah, high maintenance, that was it. Wait, that's two words..."

"Shut up."

The comm system activated. "Dr. Orina, are you there?"

"Yes, Captain Pyronis, what is it?"

"The Dauntless contacted us. They wish to proceeded to the next system on the route ASAP. When will you be done with the coding for my ship so you can help them with theirs?"

She and Ma'chello looked at each other. "Two?"

He nodded. "Two and change... and if I help as well... would be nice to talk to Dr. Jackson again..."

"Tell them two hours. And Ma'chello's going as well."

"Good. We got new directives from the Curia. Legacy will remain here to guard this treasure chest on the planet while the Fury and Revenge accompany the Earth ship to the next destination."

"For what purpose?"

"The purpose being: They might find more useful stuff. Based on Earth's track record, it's not outside the realm of possibility."

She wasn't buying it, and judging from Ma'chello's look, neither was he. "And the real reason?"

A minute of silence followed. Guess the Captain now had no choice but to tell them. "We're close to the Lucian backyard and also close to Anubis' old stomping grounds."

"Thank you Captain. Start with that first next time. Orina out."

"I can see that no matter what civilization, the military and politicians are the same everywhere..." Ma'chello grumbeled.

Meanwhile on the Dauntless several marines were beamed up into the ships engine room, the CO holding an armored case. "Your order is here." Was the marine's response to the engineering staff as they took the item out of the case and began adding it to the ships systems.

Atlantis, edge of Lantea system, two hours later

Weir was pacing back and forth in the ring room, not liking the situation. Sam was now with Rodney, giving him and the Atlantis crew a hand in fixing the star-drive properly.

Everyone else was still in a combat ready situation as the Wraith were persistent if nothing else. Every now and then a dart entered close sensor range and continued on, not able to detect them. But they could not remain like this indefinitely.

Narim had joined Weir and her command staff, helping where he could.

"He told me he could fix it. Said 'no problem Elizabeth...', 'I got it covered'. 'When have I ever let you down?'. Better I didn't respond if he wanted an answer to that."

Narim on the other hand was not letting his anger over the 'bag of hot air' that he saw Rodney some times, get the better of him. He decided to get a closer look at the Ancient database. More precisely the one about the city itself and the areas that were once flooded. He believed that the city held many more secrets to discover, if as he was told, they already found, amongst other things, a Dr. Jackson and Dr. Weir from another time-line in stasis in the city.

That was the plan. But it was far from easy, as the Lanteans had put one obstacle after another. And to be honest, even he didn't know what he was looking for. A 'fix the city now' button or program was not something plausible to look for.

Or was it... "Dr. Weir, a moment if you please." He indeed found something. She arrived and looked over his shoulder at the display he was working on.

"What exactly are we looking at?"

He explained his train of thoughts as he arrived and she agreed. Nothing to lose, not in the mess they were in anyway. "If my Ancient is correct and this translation program is correct as well... does this say: Automatic repair system?"

Now she took the empty seat to his left. "My god, it does. Status: Off line. Can you get the location of where this system is located in the city?"

He did just that. Six dots blinked on the large city display behind them. Five small ones, each in one of the outer parts of the city, but the big one was apparently at the bottom of the main tower. "They were all in the submerged parts of the city... but now..." He went into the program. It read as following: Control reestablished, ZPM power detected, city status: Damage detected. System operational. Awaiting activation. "All we need to do is activate it."

"Now hold on..." Weir stopped him from just doing that. "We don't know what that'll do. Are there specs on what this system does and how it does that?"

"Not in detail..." He tried to enter into the system beyond the main menu, but was blocked. "No luck. It only has a vague description. Apparently a system like this was first tried in something called the Destiny project. A long range ship was launched from Earth into deep space. To keep it operational, an autonomous repair system was implemented and contained... hundreds of robots designed to be linked to the main repair system and to keep the ship in an operational status. Something similar was ever since then implemented into all Ancient city-ships and Aurora classes. But the newer variation of this system, while far superior to the original one, were too expensive to be added to smaller vessels. They also have several fail-safes and one of them is that it only works with a ZPM present."

"Robots?" She didn't remember seeing any in the database. "Rodney, how's it looking down there?"

"Ugh... if we hadn't rammed that damn hive, we'd be ready to go, but we'll need more time. So it's Sheppard's fault... again."

"OK, lemon boy, you want war..."

"John, not now! Rodney, listen! Narim found something in Atlantis database. A system that was flooded before, but is apparently working again." She went to explain what they found. "What do you think?"

"Destiny, eh. Would really love to find you... OW!"

Sam apparently smacked him. "She means the system on Atlantis! Elizabeth... Let's try it. Or we'll be stuck here for a while as things look like. As always, Rodney underestimated the damage and overestimated his abilities."

"Hey!"

"You don't get to whine, Rodney, she's right!" Calming herself, she made her decision. She activated a city-wide link. "This is Weir. To all personnel. We're about to activate an Ancient repair system that will probably use repair drones of some kind. Everyone that sees them, report the location, but do not do anything" Weir out." She eyed Narim. "Activate the system."

As he did just that... nothing happened. For the first few minutes. But then Ford contacted her. "Em, Dr. Weir... my squad and I are close to the ZPM room and... we're hearing something strange..."

"Can you be more specific?"

"Sounds like clanking... metal on metal noise... lots of it... and coming closer. Oh shit! Fall back!"

"Ford!?"

"Come in solider! Status!" John joined the conversation from the control chair again.

"Replicators, sir. Fucking Replicators... the spider type!"

This was both not something they had anticipated and was the worst kind of news in their current situation.

"Ford, fall back! They'll start eating away at the city's hull to replicate and..." Was Sam's advice.

"Em... Colonels... Weir... something's strange here..." Was Ford's response.

Elizabeth was franticly trying to disable the system with Narim's help. "What?"

"They... are walking past us... and not eating anything. They're completely ignoring us."

"I noticed it too... they're here, in the damaged engine section now as well." Sam gave her update.

"Heads up...I... somehow, got the damn chair do show me the location of these bugs... but the city is not showing them as a threat? Any idea as to why that is?"

"Yeah, Sheppard, I can." It was McKay again, but now in a calm and almost cheering voice. "They are the repair system! As Narim said, they were originally simple robots... but after time, the Ancients came up with this! Narim, I'm coming up."

"For what reason?"

"I have more experience with the Ancient crap. I can try to find some backdoors to this program. Elizabeth..."

She was already going into the holo room. "I know! Already on my way there. Colonel Carter, keep an eye on them."

"Understood. So far... they really are just fixing the systems..."

Weir shut her comm device off as she closed the holo room off. "Should have tried this from the beginning..." Activating the console, the same display of the woman she and Dr. Jackson had to deal with every time they accessed the database this way, appeared.

"Good day. How may I be of service to you today?"

"Tell me everything you know about the Replicators currently fixing this city!" She was not in the mood for games.

"Pardon, but the word Replicator is not part of the database, please elaborate."

Pinching her nose bridge, she sighed. "Right... Replicator is Earth terminology. The self replicating machines that are as it seems, part of the autonomous repair system."

"As you wish. The autonomous repair system was introduced into all Ancient ship designs after the Destiny expedition was sent into deep space. But while the Destiny expedition possessed basic first generation repair and maintenance drones, with the millennia we have developed more sophisticated units with which to conduct such tasks. Additionally we have also continued perfecting the control system for these units."

"What is the control system?"

An image of an Ancient computer core appears behind the woman. " This is the core of the autonomous repair and maintenance system. It is below the lower levels of the main power room. Without this system all these repair and maintenance robots that are currently working hard to restore the city to its full capacity would collapse on themselves."

"Why was this system implemented?"

"When we first developed these next-generation repair maintenance and possibly even construction units, the council quickly understood the dangers they could pose. If they were to develops true independence, autonomy and AI, not even the Ancient leadership knew what the final outcome would be. But they didn't know that it would be only disastrous for them and anything else these machines would come into contact with. So they implemented this failsafe. These units are not autonomous. They are not independent. They are linked to the central core. If the core goes, they go."

"Well I'm sorry to say, but your high council's fears were correct. In the galaxy where Earth is located, or also known to you as you as Avalon, we have had contact with a machine race exactly like this. Originally we learned about their existence from the Asgard. They were at war with them in their galaxy. The Asgard speculated that a primitive race once found pieces of your library and used some of that specific knowledge to build these machines. Unlike the ones here in Atlantis, they were all linked with each other, autonomous and independent and possessed no central core basic fail-safe."

"That is most regrettable. So it actually did come to pass as the council feared."

"It actually got even worse than that." Weir continued to explain. "You see we found an Android, it was possibly the origin of these machines. Once they got their hands on the Android, they somehow used its technology to create a second generation of machines. These were human-form made out of nano-cells. I believe those should be known to you as well?"

"Indeed they are. But it is curious, the repair and maintenance units were never designed to be capable of constructing something so complex. As for the human form machines, they were partially designed here in Atlantis. Unlike their less evolved counterparts, their purpose was solely as a last resort weapon system. But because of our desperation, the scientist failed to implement a similar fail-safe into them."

"They became self-aware?"

"Among other things, yes."

Weir input a gate address into the console in front of her. "Was the experiment made on this planet as well?" She input the coordinates for the planet the elder Dr. Jackson gave them.

"Correct."

"Did you know that they are still there?"

"No, it was believed that they were all destroyed when we abandoned this project."

"Well you failed at that as well because some of them survived, have multiplied and have essentially emulated your civilization." Weir didn't know this first hand, only from what the other Daniel Jackson told them about.

"There is little to worry about Atlantis. It matters not that they survived, they were designed to not be able to harm their own creators or the creator's creation. Thus this city is beyond their ability to destroy."

"And us?"

"Unfortunately you were not part of the original plan. You are in fact very at risk."

"Well the good news is they are passive at the moment so we'll just leave it at that. Back to the issue at hand, the bugs in the city. Are they a threat to us?"

"No, as stated the fail-safe is still intact. Additionally all you have to do is pull the vacuum energy extractors to deactivate them as they are directly dependent on them as well."

"Okay so I we can relax on that front at least." Weir did indeed take a soothing breath of air. "Right tell me what are your abilities and limitations?" She explained to the program in front of her everything she knew about the Stargate teams that had encounters for the Replicators. She after all read every report she could about those missions.

"Everything you just told me these units are capable of doing as well with the following exceptions: They can self-repair, but not self-replicate, they can adapt any technology that was added to the city, but they cannot add any technology to themselves. They are not impervious the disruptor weapons technology specifically designed to counteract them. Also, these units were designed for maintenance and repair only, they are not capable of constructing anything beyond the city's needs."

"Ah, if I understood the last part, it means we can't use them to build ships for us, am I right?"

"Correct again."

"What about adding technology as you just mentioned. Our allies, the Tollans, installed a matter phasing-generator near the city's core and have linked it and a gate ships stealth mode generator directly into the cities shield grid. Since the stealth mode generator it's of your design, it should not pose a problem, but the other device is not of Ancient origin."

"Do not worry, if your friends has managed to incorporate this device into the cities power systems, then the repair units will completely integrate it and make it a true part of the city."

"Good, thank you for the explanation. I would also like to ask you, why did your scientists abandon the Replicator weapons project?"

"When they became self-aware, they were starting to ask questions. They wanted their programming to be altered. We'd never wanted to create an AI. And it was a time of war. We were desperate as well as lacking time and resources. Thus instead of wasting more time and resources which we didn't have on the futile attempt to give a fledgling AI more freedom, we deemed the project of failure. It was also realized how dangerous these units really were. If their lesser brethren already had such restrictions placed on them for security reasons, I don't think I have to explain to you why we abandoned this project. However, based on the fact that you have just told me that they survived also tells me did we probably did too good a job."

"I would agree with that as well." She now ponder if she had any other questions for this program. "Tell me about the Destiny project."

"Unfortunately that project has a restriction placed on it. You do not possess clearance to access that data."

"Can you tell me anything beyond its name?"

A holographic image appeared behind the woman showing a ship Weir hasn't seen in any database regarding the Ancients, so far. "This is Destiny. It was constructed around a million years ago on the planet you call Earth. Several smaller versions of this vessel were also constructed and sent into the depths of space in advance of Destiny. They all possessed the same ability to power themselves via a solar mass off a star. This made their range almost limitless, as they could refuel themselves anywhere in the universe. The purpose of the smaller vessels, called seed ships, was to scout the area Destiny would travel through and prepare for its arrival. They would transmit data on planets, stars and valuable resources to the ship as well as construct and place the first generation Stargates on every habitable planet or a planet with valuable resources. This way Destiny would know what to expect, where to refuel and once the crew arrived, how to keep the crew alive with the resources they would be able to gather from the planets that would now have active gates."

Weir was getting fascinated with this story and with this Destiny. She even forgot to the original reason why she came here.

"What is the purpose of Destiny?"

"Unfortunately that falls under the 'restricted' part."

"How did its builders intent to get to the ship if it's so far away?"

"That too is restricted."

"Did anyone ever get to Destiny to complete its mission?"

"No, that project to was abandoned. We don't even know if the ship is still intact."

"Why was that project abandoned?"

"The plague that hit our race and the entire galaxy, it altered our plans considerably. At that point, completing Destiny's mission was no longer our priority. Our survival was."

"I see. Thank you for clearing up a lot of things and answering a lot of questions. Unfortunately I still have many more but I doubt you can answer those as well."

She returns to the ring room where McKay and Narim made little progress with the control program. Yes they basically found the off switch in the program itself, but the program did not let them shut the Replicators off until the repairs were finished. The program detected all the problems and all the damage the city had endured over the millennia and put the city's welfare above its occupants wishes.

"So no luck on your front?"

"No. The damned Ancients really know how to write a program and make it impossible to hack." Was Rodney's nice response. He once again bit off more than he could chew. And she knew he was going to get another earful for it.

"Well we can relax anyway, these things have some serious fail-safes in them." She went on to explain what she learned from the Ancient program in the holo-room.

Rodney was not pleased. "Typical Ancients. No how to manual, no instructions, no explanations, half of the really good stuff was under water all the time and once again they overreached."

"Something you and they have in common then."

McKay glares at Narim for that remark. He really wanted to change subjects. "Anyway Elizabeth, according to Shepherd, the entire power grid and FTL system will be at peak efficiency in about 15 minutes. I think we can initiate a hyperspace jump then, or..."

Narim saw what McKay was plotting. "Forget it. Samantha, Radek and I already told you NO in no uncertain terms. It's too dangerous. And to use a primitive, yet for this situation adequate Earth saying: You wants to swat a fly with a bazooka. It's overkill, McKay!"

"We still need to test that system, now that we know it's here!"

"No we don't. The hyperdrive is more than enough for our needs!"

"Ehm, gentleman. Please, I'm the one that makes the decision of what we use and when we use it. So either one of you explain to me what you are talking about."

Narim leaned back, put his hands behind his head and his feet on the console. "Go ahead McKay, this is your stupid idea. You tell her."

Weir knew that these two were not getting along and it was getting worse every day, since she never saw Narim act this childishly towards anyone. "So Rodney, anything to say?"

"Emmm, yes. You see, Atlantis' star-drive is more than a simple sub-light engine and hyperspace engine. Now that it's almost fixed, a third option has appeared. Apparently it's a... wormhole drive. A really advanced wormhole drive."

"OK? Should the technobabble impress me? You do realize that everything you just said goes way above my head."

He sigh. The only thing he appreciated about Narim was that he didn't need to explain everything to him twice. "It means it's a Stargate engine that doesn't need a Stargate. Simply put within a fraction of a second it folds space around Atlantis and uses a point to point opening that enables it to transition from point A to point B in the same 0.38 seconds as it would while travelling through a Stargate. And the best part is because the Ancients made such advancement in sensor technology and navigation it's pinpoint accurate and has a range in the millions of light years."

"Typical of you McKay, leave out the drawbacks why don't you." Narim reminded him to tell Elizabeth everything.

"Yeah, right, right. Ehm... the drawbacks. It needs three ZPM's to even be able to initiate a jump, and it hasn't been tested even once..."

"What!" Elizabeth was a bit taken aback, how reckless Rodney was with this idea. "Why didn't they even test it if they designed it!?"

"Well you know, war, limited resources, time constraints, the usual stuff." Once he uttered those words, he knew she would not approve. It's also why he tried to cover these facts up.

"I don't think I have to tell you that the answer is absolutely and in no way a yes. NO, Rodney. NO. We are not testing a system that sounds great on paper but was never utilized before, just to satisfy your own curiosity and ego." She tapped her comm unit. "John, once the repairs are done, take us out of here and to the rendezvous location. And use the regular hyperdrive, not McKay's wet dream."

Rodney slumped over the console he was just working at. He saw this coming and could do nothing to avert it. He also knew that this engine was directly installed in Atlantis, so testing it was an impossibility since Earth command would never approve risking Atlantis itself to test this system. And to be able to replicate it would take time and resources which Earth command would also not approve off. Not when there is a war to be fought.

Tobin System, same time

The people of Cerberus prided themselves of being among the best in the Colonies. And among the mercenary groups they were. So they're CO planed for most if not all eventualities. Although he definitely didn't anticipate this mess they were in right now, he and his team had the equipment with them to plan for an evacuation.

Right now Colonel Marcus was inspecting everyone in the cargo bay. The beta team had managed to evacuate their crippled ship, but the vessel both teams now shared did not have the life support to sustain them all indefinitely. So rather than waiting on his hands for a Colonial rescue team to arrive once they were overdue, he began planning.

"How's it look Jasmine." He asked one of his officers and best close quarters fighters.

"It's a good thing we took enough suits with us. Never envisioned we'd need them."

"You and me both." He saw that everyone was now wearing a Colonial designed space suit for combat Marines with zero-g training. Of course Cerberus added its own flavor and modifications to the suits. Including 50% stronger RCS thrusters for greater agility in space combat. The drawback was that their suits had larger tanks at the back for the increased fuel storage. "Alright everybody listen up!" He got everyone's attention. "Jasmine is going to be the vanguard. She and a dozen of her people are going ahead. After 2 minutes the next team follows. Then after that the next one and after that the next one. So on and so on. Lieutenant Murphy, you'll be the last with your people. I'll be in the group right after Jasmine's." He turned his attention to Vala. "You're with me. Because of your importance I'll be handling your security myself."

"Awww... you shouldn't bother. I can take care of myself. But..." She played around a bit with his forearm. "I do see the appeal."

He attached a cable to her belt and secured it. They were now directly linked. "I'll be doing the flying, you're just along for the ride. That's why I also shut down your suits RCS control capability." He then proceeded to attach a small tube from his fuel tank into her's. "But since I'm going to pull double the mass, I'll be needing your tanks fuel as well."

She protested. "What are you talking about mass!? I am a thin and gorgeous woman, thank you very much. I can't contribute that much mass!"

"Play your games all you want, but I'm more than just a pretty face and muscle. I did my math."

She points to the other teams who would come behind them. Many of them, in pairs of two, would be on each side one container, guiding them. Since much of the items they would need on the space station, could only be brought en mass this way, the teams decided to take the entire containers with them. "And them?"

"Those containers have their own limited RCS fuel supply." He points to the same tubes that were sticking out of their rear fuel supply and or attached the specific parts of the containers.

"OK but explain this to me then!" She points to the RCS openings at the front of his suit. "How will they work if I'm in the way!?"

"They won't. I shut them down. I'll just have to rotate us by 180 degrees to make adjustments like that."

She clenched her head. "Ugh, I feel dizzy just thinking about that."

Ajax joins the conversation. "You and me both lady. And there are no barf bags in this thing."

Marcus found it amusing, as the otherwise cool as ice assassin had a weak stomach. Before he could say anything, Ajax already knew what he was plotting. "Shut up meathead, this ain't funny."

Lifting both his arms in a mocking way of defeat, Marcus for the final time inspected his people. "We ready?"

He got mostly positive responses, with Ajax, Vala and Soren being the exceptions. Since they were all attached to a Cerberus team member.

Satisfied with the situation and planning, he tapped his comm. "Are we in position?"

"Rodger that sir. We're aligned at the edge of the minefield with what we think is a half constructed Goa'uld ship still docked to that monstrosity of a space station."

"Understood." He then slammed the airlock control panel. The ship's internal systems proceeded to extract all the atmosphere from within every compartment of the vessel to prevent a disastrous decompression. The kind that would blow most of the people inside out of the ship and probably injured or killed many of them.

Once done, the doors to the vacuum of space opened.

They proceeded to leave the ship in a orderly fashion. Redistributing themselves close to each other but keeping sufficient distance to not getting each other's ways, the first waves of the ship's inhabitants we're in position.

The ones with the heavy duty job of carrying the cargo containers were now moving out as well. Just as the first ones departed the ship, Marcus signalled Jasmine to proceed.

She and a wing-woman engaged their thrusters and began moving into the minefield. A few seconds later the next pair went after them. Then the next one. When's the first wave was gone they waited.

The plan sounded simple, at least on paper. They would navigate the mine and asteroid field by using their zero-g training. Marcus knew his people could get that part of the problem resolved. But so far that space station had demonstrated that its owner was not quite that dumb to leave it out here without any defences.

Since the station detected their approach even under cloak and had a pretty hostile reaction to them, it worried him if history would repeat itself. Soren was his main source of information here, but even he didn't know if Goa'uld sensors could detect life signs in a mine and asteroid field outside a spaceship. Marcus hoped that singular life signs in combination with the still present radiation in the field that they would have to traverse would either make them undetectable or not seen as a threat. But the radiation itself was also an issue. Their space suits were designed to endure them, for a while. And the distance to their target was several thousand kilometers. So they would be on the clock, once they begin.

And for the exact same reason of remaining undetected, he could not risk them using their tylium fuelled rocket engines, as the heat bloom might be detected. So they were stuck with RCS thrusters only.

After a few minutes, Captain Hostilius finally contacted him and gave the green light. Checking the fuel line in the hook between himself and Vala for one final time, he signaled his part of the group to follow him in the same manner that was done with the previous group. "Remember, don't let go of me during this. You ready little lady?"

"Hell no, you people are insane!" She tried to protest. While her life was filled with insane things, this was something completely new an unknown, even to her. "I'd rather stay behind on the ship, thank you!"

"Too late for that! Now hold on tight and don't let go!" He activated his forearm controls as his suits thrusters propelled them after the first group. And just as planned, the others began following them in sequence.

"You people really are crazy!" She yelled at no one in particular as they began accelerating into the mine field.

Marcus kept his head tilted upwards to keep an eye on what was coming. His HUD that was built into the helmet, gave him some advanced warning of potential impacts with objects that might cross his trajectory. And right now he was in fact at risk hitting a mine. Now that he was in flight mode, he's suits controls we're directly linked to his fingers on both hands. That meant he was now restricted to movement only and couldn't use any weapons or anything else while flying or risk altering the course in a way he did not want to. Taking the warning into account, he initiated a maneuver. The thrusters activated on his back and pushed him into her and both of them several meters into his anterior position. Once he saw that he cleared the possible impact, using the thrusters again, they did a 180 roll and switched positions. Now his aft thrusters activate again to stop any side movement while continuing the forward movement.

"God, that Ajax guy was right. Where's the barf bag!"

"I told you not to eat anything before we did this. Beside, you barf in there you're stuck in there with it. And this was just one maneuver."

Just as he said that he prepared to execute a new one as another mine was about to cross their trajectory.

Vala made a mental note to never go and do an extreme sport with these people. They were crazier than she was!

Around 15 minutes into their flight Marcus realized it at this point his entire team with the exception of the pilot that remained on the crippled Al'kesh, we're on their way and that in a few minutes Jasmine's group should already be decelerating in preparation of landing on their target. Or at least he hoped so, if nothing more else wrong.

"How much longer? Because you do not want to have me annoy you with the 'are we there yet' sentence."

Vala tried to restrain herself from being annoying, as she knew this was neither the time nor the place, but the massive space station that was their target, was suddenly becoming really, really big.

"A few more minutes, if my calculations are not wrong."

He himself had to admit that this thing's size was something else. An as they are about to be up-close-and-personal, it was even more impressive. Or should he say intimidating.

His comm activated. "Sir we managed to arrive at the target location." It was Captain Hostilius. "Our predictions were correct. This ship is only half constructed and we could easily get access into its interior by the unfinished bulkheads."

"Understood. Proceed with caution. Find us a way in."

Several minutes later, he and Vala had been decelerating and stopped a few meters above the sentry the Colonial Captain left behind to guide the newcomers in the right direction.

Using the RCS of his suit to get himself and Vala to the sentry's level, he noticed where the alien ship's construction had been abruptly stopped. "Status?"

"Right into the direction you were just inspecting, sir. But apparently getting here was the easy part. Getting in would be the difficult part."

"Meaning?"

"All the doors to the parts of the ship that are pressurized are closed off. No luck getting pass them so far."

Hearing that, Vala decided to finally do something useful again. "That's my cue. If I'm good at anything it's breaking into places. But I'm no good in this stupid space suit. Can you get me there, muscles?"

"Yeah, right. You stay here and keep guiding the people in same direction. I'm taking her to see if we can crack this bitch open."

And just as he promised, they arrived at what seemed to be a corridor door that was closed off to prevent decompression.

"I see you people have already started." He asked his Captain as he saw someone already trying to open an access panel next to the door.

"With little luck so far, sir."

He unhooked Vala and maneuvered her two said panel. "Give her some room. You need anything else?"

She unhooked the small utility bag attached to her hip. She was told what some of the attachments on the suit were meant to be. So she put her equipment for breaking and entering into this small bag.

"No big guy, got everything I need here." She went to work and in under a minute had the panel open. Casually letting the panel cover float next to her, she rearranged some of the control crystals inside. "The issue we have is that I can't just open this door. I do that, and the air inside blows out. Since this isn't a hatch, it wasn't designed with atmospheric barriers. So I'm going to have to change that. As all Goa'uld security doors, it does have a general force field projector installed. Just going to tweet it from an all purpose barrier to the one we need. Annnnddddd... there, that should do it." She grabbed the wall and pushed herself to the other side of the door and activated the door controls. As the doors opened, her makeshift barrier engaged.

The Colonials reacted on the spot, weapons and flashlights aimed at their entrance.

"Am I good or am I good?" She proceeded two step through the barrier and into the constructed part of the ship.

The Colonials followed hew, taking every precaution they could.

As they set foot on the Goa'uld ship, their feet actually did it hit the ground as the ship's artificial gravity was already working. They also tested the atmosphere. It was breathable. It took another 20 minutes for everyone to arrive. During that time they managed to secure this half-constructed ship. To make it easier for the team with the heavy equipment to enter, one of the groups was directed into the main hangar which was thankfully already built. With the hangar bay doors now open, they had plenty of space to drop their cargo. The hangar was empty. No ships or fighters in it.

The first stage of Marcus' operation was now complete. But they didn't come here to steal a half constructed ship. Not that it could get them anywhere anyway. Soren had checked the data terminals. His access was limited. For them to be able to access the station itself they needed to be on the station.

"So, this is a Re'nak class? Well, it's bigger, I'll give them that..." Ajax remarked on the ships bridge where he, Marcus, Vala and Soren were assembled with other Cerberus people doing various stuff.

"Let's get down to business." Marcus signaled to Soren to get the holo display of the ship working. The station was shown, from the outside as this ship had no data on the inside. All that was marked, were the docking areas, which were easily spotted with the naked eye anyway, as well as the main foundry, power plant and bridge of the station. "So, we'll enter the station via these connections." He marked the areas. Jasmine, you'll take team one and go for the main computer room. Soren will be with you guys. Ajax, Vala, me and team two will go for the bridge. Team three remains here, just in case."

Vala, who already had her Kull armor on and the helmet slumped under her arm, didn't like this plan. "Remember the traps I mentioned?"

"This place is huge, you have a better plan?"

"Well, no, but..."

"So that settles that. Lock and load, people!"

All Colonials now ditched their space suits for regular combat gear. Now gathered at the docking port that connected to the station, their nerves were on high alert.

"I do have one point of bad news for all of us." Vala, while overruled, didn't let this stop her from telling her of the suspicions she had for this place. "I wouldn't use the internal ring transporter system."

Everyone, who was checking the gear or still counting ammo, stopped dead in their tracks.

"What?" Was Jasmines response as she realized what all must have. The sheer size of this place would mean going anywhere on foot would take a while.

"Remember the security system Soren and I mentioned. We already underestimated it once. I would hate to do so again. We shouldn't use any system or power anything up, just peek. If the system detects activity..."

Soren chimed in. "She has a point. If we weren't detected, so far, by the internal sensors, it means the place's automated defensive system has them powered down. If the system however would detect activity, it will activate and... well perhaps even wake the sleepers, if there are any, to hunt us down."

Marcus grumbled. He was not happy with this. No one was.

"Fine. Jogging it is. We take the bare minimum with us. First control console we find, you two do your magic without waking the system, then we get to this places core and split up."

As they entered the access hatch for the station, the vanguard troops took point. Peeking around all corners, the place was dark and looked deserted. And to a degree it was a bit scary as well.

Swinging his anti-centurion RPG around his shoulder, Marcus went to the front, once it was cleared. "Right, they ain't paying us by the hour." He began a steady run down the corridor to the next door that seemed like an eternity away. Others began following him in a steady stream.

Vala was at the rear of this convoy. "Well, guess it could be worse. My figure can only get better from this."

Dakara, two hours later

The Free Jaffa nation had finally managed to get a form of working government going. And they had to choose a formal representative for the entire council. A leader. A Jaffa version of Supreme System Lord, but democratically.

Well, as democratically as Jaffa were capable for it.

Teal'c was asked by many to be the first nomine. He declined. It was not something for him. And he believed he did not deserve it. Others, like Greak, were of course, promoting themselves as hard as possible. Teal'c knew they would not succeed, as Jaffa like that vote only for themselves and have little influence beyond military intimidation. Haikon declined as well, for similar reasons as Teal'c. Rak'nor and those like him considered himself too young. But when it comes to age, wisdom and a well known name... Bra'tac was the ideal candidate. Almost. The voting was done and he got 60% of all votes.

"My friends, I truly thank you for this honor and responsibility." He turned from his supporters and eyes his greatest opponent, Gerak, who was clearly not please. But also had an expression of... inevitability on him, as if he had seen it coming. "I hope that we all can now begin to plan for the future. Not just for our people, but the entire galaxy." He approached Gerak, his hand open with the intent of greeting him the traditional way. Gerak hesitated at first, but accepted it in the end.

"While I do not agree with everything you and Tea'lc are proposing, especially your sometimes questionable loyalties to the Tok'ra and humans..." He saw past Bra'tak at O'Neill, Woolsey and Jacob. "We agree on that at least. Stability."

The ceremony done, they all took their seats at the round stone table. The three none Jaffa representatives had their own cut off section there. A Jaffa guard activated an orb in the middle of the table that projected the image of the galaxy to the ceiling.

Around half of the galaxy got colored in a golden color. And many border sections had red dots marked. Those were where incursions, raids or full blown battles had happened in the past 14 days. Then blue dots appeared for human known planets. Green ones for Tok'ta bases. Orange ones for Lucians and Ba'al planets. Grey ones for other species and unknown contacts. "As you can see by the recent attacks by both Ba'al and mostly Lucian forces, our borders are anything but secure." Bra'tac interpreted the display. "But the human worlds were attacked as well."

"Human worlds are not our concern, Bra'tac." Gerak reminded all of his main priority. "Let Earth and the Tollans protect them."

"And we would, if we had the strength to do so." O'Neill entered the fray. "Should we had used that approach during the Goa'uld - Replicator war. Let the Jaffa rebels fend for themselves? Let me remind you that the bulk of our fleet is in disrepair because we dispatched everything we had to Dakara."

"Jack." Woolsey tried to calm him down before he did an O'Neill thing.

"No, Dick. I won't shut up, not when this hypocritical Jaffa is saying crap! Is it do as you say, or say as you do? Which is it?"

In the old times Gerak would have responded in kind, but... for this new era, he contained himself. "I merely stated that our forces too are stretched thin. We can barely keep our outer worlds pirate free."

"Jack." Jacob addressed his friend. "How long until some Earth ships are back up and running?"

Jack shrugged and lazily pointed to Woolsey. He pushed his glasses up and realized he'd have to give them something. "All of our space forces will be operational again within 10 days. As for the shipbuilding issue, the Tollans are really helping us in that area."

Rak'nor, who had been inspecting the display of the galaxy, realized something. "Half of those worlds are part of the treaty with the Asgard. Should they not deal with those at least?"

Jacob addressed the question. "That treaty was with the System Lords. I doubt the Lucians will care. And the Asgard can't be at every planet. The treaty basically forced the System Lords to police themselves. We can't really force Ba'al and the Lucians to do the same. No, we all inherited this problem."

"Not as if we heard from the little guys lately. Thor is a no show." O'Neill said with disappointment.

Haikon, for the first time since the vote, reacted and not just remained silent at the side. "A human expression is applicable here. The best defense is a good offence." He took control of the holo display. "We know of these Lucian and Ba'al bases. Our forces had already struck at 20 of them in the past few days as retaliation for Ba'al stealing Stargates."

"And we recovered over 100 of them." Teal'c addressed Jacob. "Have the Tok'ra been able to determine why he needs the gates?"

"Not precisely. But the gates were modified, their automatic upload system was disabled."

"And?" That told O'Neill nothing.

"And... we believe, although we have no proof, that he might want to build his own gate network, independent of the existing one."

Bra'tac restored order, before talks would even begin to spread. "With what end goal?"

"That's still a mystery, but it is somewhat plausible. Think about it. He can't beat us in a direct battle. He might try manipulation or mind control someday, but for a long term plan, getting out of here is a good strategy. Now he can't leave the galaxy, but we have large gaps in the mapping of our galaxy. Plenty of spaces where he could install stolen gates and not have them link back with the main network. We'd need decades to find anything. But we also learned the Lucians are not pleased as well. A few days ago, Lucian warlord Masim had a great victory and managed to recover over a dozen Lucian gates himself."

Bra'tac, hearing this, had an idea. "And the Lucians? Have the Tok'ra finally found their main base?"

Gerak had no love for cloak and dagger missions. "Why bother, we all know the location of Lucia. Let's just conquer it or destroy it and be done with it!"

Teal'c stood up, not liking the sound of that. "We do that, where are we better than the Goa'uld? The people there have lived under Lucian rule for millennia. They will see us as invaders. More so, their military might use this opportunity to capture our worlds, since that planet would require a sizable fleet to capture. And genocide, I truly hope you were joking."

But people in the room, who knew Gerak, also knew he was not the joking type.

"Perhaps we can do something in-between then." Jacob suggested. "No genocide, I'm against that as well, but scorched earth tactics. They were popular with the Goa'uld."

Yes, a popular tactic indeed. If a Goa'uld, no matter how small or big, saw a battle turning for the worse and the control of a planet slip from him, would rather see that planet made unusable for the enemy as well. Even if that meant the death of everyone in it.

Jacob saw he needed to clarify quickly. "No, we do not know the location of their main base. But as for my plan. The plant the Lucians use to create their drugs, it requires fertile soil and labor forces. Lucians force local populations of a planet to work for them, mostly humans. If we assault those worlds, then evacuate the indigenous populations to one of our refugee planets and deploy a bio weapon to make the planet useless for farming for at least 100 years. That way the Lucians will starve for their main 'selling' product. And the planets are thinly populated anyway. It's not like we're talking about the relocation of hundreds of millions here."

"Emm... Jacob?" O'Neill got the first word in after this proposal that silenced the room. "This is a bit dark for you."

"Yes, I know. But the plan I gave does not foresee genocide, just relocation."

"Forced relocation."

"Yes, but..."

"You know, historically on Earth, that was used as an excuse for worse things."

"Yes, and it was used by the Goa'uld for even worse end results, but we are not them and I believe we are a bit more enlightened than human civilizations on Earth centuries ago. Look. The Tollans relocated. Many other populations did."

"Yes, they had no choice."

"Exactly. Do you think some people on those planets had a choice to work for the Lucians? At gun point?"

"We'd be doing the same thing!"

Teal'c tried to break this deadlock. "Perhaps many would prefer to leave, since the Lucians either control those worlds with military power or regularly raid them."

Jacob was thankful for this support. "Exactly! It's not like we'd enslave them or anything. We'd be giving them a new home and land to work on. And on a planet we can actually protect."

Jack massaged his head, thinking about this. "Basically, put all the eggs into a few baskets? Reduce the number of planets with human populations, small populations, and in a way just focus them into a smaller area?"

"Yes! That way, even our small forces can deal with threats better and leave the Lucians less populations to exploit." Jacob turns his attention to Bra'tac. "Technically, until the Jaffa forces are back to pre-Replicator invasion levels and your fleet recovers as well, that might be a suitable strategy for you as well."

Now Gerak slammed his fist on the table. "Out of the question! We will not cede territory we fought so hard to keep! We..."

"Gerak!" Bra'tak intervened. "I think the important part of this plan would be to NOT abandon our outer worlds permanently. We can always recover them after we recuperate. Am I correct?" Jacob nodded in confirmation. "Very well. I'll deal with this. I'll need a list of least populated worlds in border regions or disputed territories. Now... to deal with the three military issues we have at hand. Ba'al's fleet's have been spotted near the double binary system in the Xeros stellar nursery. That and the Stargate recovery mission are of paramount importance. If we can capture Ba'al and show to the galaxy the death of the Last System Lord, their power will be forever broken."

"I believe that Gerak's talents would be useful in the hunt for Ba'al's fleet." Teal'c suggested. This way he got Gerak out of their hair, so to say, and extend an olive branch by acknowledging his fleet's power and his courage. Gerak nodded.

"I accept."

"And I will deal with the gate recovery."

"Excelent." Bra'tac continued with the next agenda. "The Lucians. While I deal with the relocation issue for the Jaffa, Rak'nor, take a scout force to the border regions where the Lucian territory ends and the old Anubis territory begins. Do not engage them, unless you deem it necessary. Only gather information. After all, even the bravest warrior cannot win a battle without proper intelligence."

"It will be done, master Bra'tac."

"O'Neill of Earth, how does the search for this... Kobol proceed?"

"Well, B, that's an interesting one. Beside the Tollans throwing us a curve-ball and us finding a manufacturing planet of the Ancients, we have zip so far."

Jacob translated Jack's street talk. "He means we have nothing so far."

"Still... I read the report on those crystals. We would benefit from them as well."

"Yes." Gerak came to back Bra'tak up in this matter. "If just six of them made Anubis a power to be reckoned with, what will you become if you have hundreds."

Jack tried to play dumb. Tried and failed. "Yeah, who's counting, right?"

"Look, human..."

"Gerak, perhaps we could trade with them and not resort to threats?" Gerak backed down. "Well?"

Jacob had the solution. "Let's be honest here. Jaffa are good solders, but not great engineers or construction workers. Even if we give you a share of the findings, you'd need time to install them into a ship and get it to work. We, Earth and the Tollans have those skills. In exchange to granting you access to a percentage of the crystals and our engineering skills, grant us access to the old main Kull production facility planet."

That demand was not expected. "Why, Jacob Carter?"

"Another rare mineral is now known to be located in large quantities on that world. It too was a manufacturing planet of the Ancients. That mineral, by the way, was part of the Kull battle armor make-up. The energy absorbing properties originate from that mineral."

Now the Jaffa got curious.

"You grant us access, we find the base, you mine the mineral and we use it to make armor based on the Kull design. And everyone here gets it. Deal?"

Bra'tac looked around the room to his fellow Jaffa. All nodded in confirmation, even if some had not really pleased facial expressions. "Then it is decided. Rak'nor, one more thing. Your forces will be deployed near the uncharted space where the Tollan and Earth forces currently search for this... Kobol. Should they ask for assistance, give it to them."

"Understood."

After another 30 minutes, most of the talking was done and the council members departed for the gate to get back to their respective worlds for today. In the hall that was leading to the outside plaza with the gate, Haikon and O'Neill were having a last minute chat.

"Jolan gave me a personal update. Quite the mystery they stumbled upon."

"You mean the robots and nuked planet or the Ancient world?"

"Both. I should tell you, should either you or Jolan request reinforcements, I have a squad of my best Sodan warriors on stand-by to depart through the Stargate to any location you or Jolan name."

"Good to know."

Cylon space, BSG Cyclops

The BS Cyclops flashed into existence with a group of nine battlestars and twice as many support ships. The moment they appeared, every battlestar began launching her vipers and raptors.

"Status!?" Lennox demanded.

"We're were we're supposed to be, sir." His XO responded. They both checked the dradis screen. And it was not empty as several red icons appeared. "Three basestars and two unknown small ships. Also a ton of raiders?"

The tactical officer reported the change on his station. "Sir, they spotted us. They seem to be hauling stuff via cargo ships off the planet Djerba."

"Viper pilots confirm that statement." The comm officer added.

Lennox smirked. "Who's caught with the pants down now, bastards. Comm, tell the marinestar to begin deployment of the dropships ASAP. Three of the four Valkyries are to screen her. Order the remaining five battlestars to take flanking positions around us. We're charging in, guns blazing. Vipers on intercept duty, raptors..."

His XO didn't like this plan. Too reckless. "Sir, wouldn't it be more prudent to land our troops after the toasters thin their forces on the ground with this evacuation?"

"Like hell! And give them more time to get potentially valuable stuff of the planet? This world is a communication node for them! The more we intercept, the better for us. And besides, this is war, we take risks all the time. Helm, tactical, execute my orders!"

The basestars reacted to their presence and aggressive stance, by deploying a screen of raiders and launched nukes.

But there was no hope for them to hit the marinestar, which was their main target if they hoped to delay this invasion for a few more days. But Adama had briefed HQ on the Cylons new suicide tactic, so the vipers split into three groups. First group was close range protection, they kept a distance from their mother ship less than a kilometer. The second group was the medium distance zoning group that could reinforce either the attackers or defenders, depending what was needed. The third was at the front, pure offensive, even if they were now currently busy with intercepting nukes. Just as they were still in the process of doing that, the enemy raider force engaged them in an all out slug fest. only this time, the Cylons were the underdog, both in numbers and fire power.

The battlestar group pushed forward, so the cloud of vipers and raiders that were still engaging each other, made way or become road kill. But that too was Lennox plan. The moment his ship was in the process of passing the swarm of fighters, his vipers disengaged at the port and starboard sides of their command ships and burned at full speed to either ventral or dorsal sides of the Cyclops. The raiders didn't get it... until the Cyclops opened up with its port and starboard flack cannons, shredding the still confused Cylon raider force. The Colonial losses during this phase were minimal due to this stunt. Lennox planed this to perfection. He even kept the distance between all of his battlestars to the minimum needed level to prevent any friendly fire incidents.

So the Cylons had just lost a third of their raider force for... basically nothing. And if things could not get any worse for them, the marinestar had just launched its first wave and the main battlestar force entered artillery battery range and engage them. Whatever the Cylons were here to salvage, it seems it was no longer worth it. The three basestars cut their losses and jumped away, leaving the transports, who were still spooling their FTL, to fend for themselves. It was a turkey shoot.

Lennox was glad. Two for two operations he had just led in the past three days. Finally something both he and Cain agreed on. Offence is better. And Nagala saw that the Colonial military had recovered sufficiently, crippled Cylon infiltration and reduced Cylon IQ to such a level that they could switch from defense to offense.

"One of the few times I'd actually sad Cain ain't here."

His XO was looking at the incoming reports, mostly the casualties. "Sir, your plan worked well. Our viper losses were kept to a minimal. Only 34 for the entire fleet."

"Yeah. But a plan is only as good as the people executing it. Here, on me." He handed him a cigar as he had just lit one for himself."

"Em, thank you, sir. Now, as for the marine landings, first reports are promising..."

"For frak's sake, can't we just enjoy this beautiful sight. An orbit full of toaster scrap metal and our boys and girls on the planet now retaking an old resort world."

"Ski resort, sir. Was not really important for us."

"Any Colonial world is important! Now..." He lit the cigar he handed to his XO. "Enjoy, that's an order!"

The man coughed a bit. "Not really a cigar type, sir. By the way, you mentioned Cain. I thought you two can't stand each other?"

"Not her! Augustus! Now there's a leader. Charming, fearless, could motivate anyone to lay their lives for the Colonies! Helena... yeah, if you want a summary execution or ... yeah, never mind the other issue."

His XO remained clueless.

In the next hour, the reports kept getting better. The orbit was secured and what was left of their space forces, was moped up. On the ground, things didn't proceed as fast, but steadily none the less.

With the difficult terrain, the Colonials opted to not bring any heavy ground vehicles, but opted to infantry only with raptor support.

That however also meant they had to take the abandoned old Colonial holiday structures, like hotels, that were used as cover by the Cylons who had long ago after seizing this space, installed a communication node for their territory. One very young William Adama had the displeasure of learning that during the first war, on his maiden mission. When he also learned the reality of war. It was not romantic or glorious. It was bloody. Filled with treachery. From both sides. Back then he didn't know who disappointed him more. The woman he was meant to protect, who ousted herself as a Cylon sympathizer, or the military command, who had known of her plan, took advantage of it and decided to sacrifice the Osiris and her crew for the mission. Commander Nash, after giving him this promotion and medal, however, did point out one thing: All men and women, who were either drafted or volunteered, like Adama himself, know the risks. And death was a constant companion. And sometimes you have to lay down your life, even if you don't know the reason. War, like life, is not fair. It screws everyone over.

Yet while Bill understood the reasons for HQ's decisions, it didn't hurt any less knowing that your just a chess piece on a board that can be sacrificed at any time without being asked.

Lennox had red all the reports concerning Djerba. Including the classified stuff. 40 years later, it was not as classified any longer, not for a flag officer. Lennox felt for the then young Adama as he too had some bad experiences with HQ, but then again, he had to make tough calls himself. Even on the other side, you're not spared.

Back on Djerba, the marines were forced to take structure by structure, room by room. The Colonials basically wrote the book on war of attrition and room to room fights, even during the inter-Colonial wars, but the book was heavily modified during the first Cylon war. Mostly in the weapons type used: Explosive rounds and not taking prisoners.

After the raptors cleaned out every toaster still outside as well as every weapons position, like a SAM site, the marines entered the fray. Losses were expected, so a makeshift first aide position was established in every landing area to deal with the wounded that would emerge from the buildings. After stabilizing them, they would be moved via raptor to the marinestar or the support medical ship, that was an old Atlas class converted for this purpose.

The regular troops that remained in the landing zones to keep them protected, decided to go hunting around the drop zone as well. Hunting for the leftover Cylon bio experiments from during the first war, when the toasters were still experimenting with organic-machine hybrids.

Yet another sign that should have alerted the Colonials that the Cylons might one day succeed in emulating their creators. This, Adama's report during the end of the war and many other signs were simply ignored. That almost cost them everything.

Caprica

The Quorum debates were proceeding as Laura had hoped. Then again, this was the portion of the Quorum talks that were open to the public and recorded by the few select news networks. That part was, however, now over as the cameras were removed, the public observers left and the room closed off. In addition, intelligence officers went through the room, scanning for any listening devices. Once all was done, the aids closed the door and a green light turned on behind the president's entrance, signaling that they were now secured.

And she knew she would hate what was to come.

As the room went quiet and the light behind her turned green, just as Laura predicted, Sarah Porter took the initiative as her Gemenon sign light up, signaling to the other Quorum members that she was now talking and protocol prohibits anyone of them to interrupt them.

"Madam President. Now that we can get some 'real' work done, we need to address the growing issues and concerns we, the Quorum, have with your administration."

Putting her glasses down and clasping her hands, Laura was ready. "Then begin."

Laura's appearance, which signaled that she was not intimidated one bit, caught Porter off guard, but she continued and began reading off of her list. "The hidden funds that have been relocated by Fleet Admiral Nagala for an unspecified purpose, which you signed off on. The appropriation of several planetoids for military use. The reactivation of previously old and abandoned military facilities without going through the proper channels. The continuous digging in the Valley of the Lords, the unexplained interest the military has shown in prometheon and the acquisition of most prometheon sources known in the Colonies. And as the final point, the indirect hiring of a mercenary group that initiated an assault on a member Colony in this Quorum!" She turns from her to Zarek, who, for some strange reason, remained calm. "Your colony, Tom. Yet I heard almost nothing out of you! You of all people, the freedom fighter, and you let them trample on your home world!"

She released the button and the Gemenon light darkened again. Before Laura could respond, the Sagitarrian light went up on the spot. "I'd like to answer that before the President gets to reply to your attack on her. I did respond, internally. I, as a member of the Quorum, have the second highest authority on my home world, after the planetary governor. I assembled an investigation group to find out how and why the Chroniclers were able to walk that freely and with such great influence on Sagitarrion, all the while the other Colonies had arrest warrants for them. I am angry, but not at the Cerberus Company, the President or the military. I'm angry that these people took advantage of my world and my people's traditional ways to hide in plain sight. Yes, I am not pleased that this raid took place, but better that than something worse. And you have no solid proof the President was aware of this. I say the Cerberus Company did the Colonies a favor. I'll get a lot of heat for this from my voters, I have no illusions on that, but long term, this is for the better. Almost as good as the recent Ha'la'tha shake-up all across the colonies. You going to accuse the President of that as well?!"

That outburst caught Porter off guard. Not once had she imagined Zarek of all people to side with the President. Well, not entirely side, but to defend her in this position. "Representative Zarek..."

Laura now took over. "You had your five minutes, Representative Porter. My turn, if you please." Porter did back down and sit. "Thank you. To address all your fears, give me the same curtsey you just had. First point: The funds. They are linked to the new R&D sector associated with reverse-engineer captured Cylon technology. We had too many security breaches lately, so Nagala saw it necessary to create an independent division to do just that." That was a half-truth, but technically she didn't lie. "The planetoids and old abandoned facilities being reactivated are all linked to the first point. Second point: Recent discoveries on the usefulness of prometheon made it necessary to secure that material for military needs as long as this war continues. The civilian sector will get its share at some point." Also technically not a lie. "Point three: The Valey of the Lords, you and your religious groups themselves caused that, so do not blame me." Not a lie. "As for the recent shock as to what happened to the Chroniclers and the Ha'la'tha, I am informed those were the actions of a singular individual. The military just didn't bother stopping him as whoever that was, was doing us all a favor. The Cerberus team on the other hand are hired guns. They assaulted a place that precious few knew even existed. Did you?" Also technically not a lie. She intensely glared at Zarek and Porter. Both remained quiet. They could never answer that question in a positive manner, as that would imply they knew the location of a base for Colonial's most wanted as authorities searched for them high and low. "So if they get paid and no authority told them to not do it and they put no civilians in danger, I see no reason to go after Cerberus Company. Now the Phobos Company is another matter entirely. Any other questions?!"

In under five minutes Laura defused the best ammo Porter had against her. Laura had expected this to be a bit more difficult and she knew Porter would not let this go, but Zarek being dead quiet… was worrying. She didn't know if that was good or bad. If he was quiet because, as she suspected, he got more freedom as his issues disappeared with the removal of the Chroniclers, that was good. If he had more planned and this silence was part of it, that meant trouble.

So now Porter had lost any chance of getting the needed support from the other representatives to force Laura to literally show them the books.

Laura saw at every Quorum member. Leonis, Virgon, Aquarion, Libran, Tauron and Scorpia representatives were annoyed by this stunt from Porter and would support the President. Wallace Gray, her old friend who now represented Caprica, had to restrain a laugh at this bonfire. He was on her side no matter what. Picon, Canceron and Aerilon were a bit in between whom to back, but this shifted their support to Laura. While they were no fans of her, they saw a bad deal when it was presented. Sagittaron was quiet. But no matter whom Zak backed, Laura had won this round.

After 30 more minutes of other items up for discussion that weren't meant for the public, the green light changed to red. "Now, ladies and gentlemen, I am glad to say we got many issues resolved." Eying Porter again as if she was marking her territory. "Hope we won't need to do this again." As everyone stood up to begin their departure, Laura stopped one particular representative. "Mr. Zarek. I would like to have a word with you in my office, if you don't mind."

Everyone was a bit shocked at this. Zarek and Gray the most. Gray almost felt betrayed, as if Laura was conspiring with Tom.

"Em, as you wish, madam President." Tom too was clueless. He just tried to keep his head down until things cool off… and hopefully for him no one survived or escaped when it comes to the Chroniclers and the mob.

Once they arrived and the guards closed the doors behind them, Laura sat behind her desk and poured herself a drink. Tom… still confused, sat across her table. She didn't offer him a drink. So now he waited, the only sound in the room being the antique clock Laura added when she customized the office. "So." Laura began after finishing her drink. "What's your angle, Zarek?"

"Em… excuse me?"

"Save the innocent and dumb act. You and I both know who got you out of prison. And now that they are locked up and waiting prosecution themselves, you alter tactics."

"I honestly don't…"

"Save it! I know, I just can't prove it. Maybe one of the Chroniclers will flip. Wouldn't that be a sight? Tom Zarek's second trial. The media will step on each other for that. Or maybe the Ha'la'tha survivors will?"

"You can't ask them that, or admit you were involved. And taking them out was in itself a terrorist attack, no matter how cleverly disguised."

Got him. That's the Zarek Laura wanted to see. The defiant man, not the broken caricature he was pretending to be. "No, I can't, can I? Nevertheless, you have more to lose than me. Why do you think I asked for you to come here? Just to talk? No. Porter, the other permanent thorn in my side will not trust you again, not after your silence today. Me asking you to talk in private now… makes you seem like I bought you. "

Frak! She pulled a fast one on him. "What do you want?"

"Your loyalty I will never get, not that I want it. But you remain this docile representative… that will work. You don't throw obstacles at my feet, no galvanizing anyone or asking unneeded questions… and we'll get along just fine. You may even serve your term to its end. We agree on that?"

"And I do that, you leave me alone and bury any fingers that might get pointed at me by the survivors?" She nodded. "Fine, deal."

"Not so fast. One last thing, attached to this deal. I don't want to see you in the candidate list for the upcoming presidential vote. Ever. Not in a few months, a few years or a few centuries. Become Governor of your colony, fine, but that's as far as you can go."

"Now wait a minute…"

"Either that or a two by four cell again. I can only think you got sick of those, right?"

He shot up from the chair and stormed to the exit. "Deal." He hissed out of the corner of his mouth. As he left and the doors slammed behind him, Laura smiled. For the first time in a long time she actually felt good. Emotionally good anyway. Physically she felt good for a while. "This may be a good day after all." Her happiness disappeared on the spot when she noticed the pile of work in the form of documents still on her table. "A great time of Tory to be ousted as a Cylon. Where will I find a good assistant as her in these times?"

Kobol

Bill was back on the Galactica, overseeing the final preparations for the upcoming sedge. Lee was doing the same on the Earth ship. That part at least was easier as the remaining mark eights were already removed. Now they were in the main hangar in the Kobol base, getting jury-rigged into remote controlled raptors.

Baltar was in said hangar, overseeing the process. "That all the Earth warheads primed and ready. How many other remote controlled raptors were you able to modify?"

The hangar Chief took at his papers after getting from under the raptor she was busy with. "17 in total, including the Earth ones. If we had more time..."

"Yes, time is always a luxury for us. Pack the others with our regular nukes. Two a piece." She nodded and went to work.

"Where you going, Doctor?"

"To inspect that cobbled together control center for the remote control pilots. Can't have the system crash in the middle of the battle, can we?"

During all of this Caprica was shown the hidden laboratory. The talks she had with Nagala were, difficult, to say the least. But in the end they came to an agreement. One she knew, Nagala would get a lot of heat, once it got public, but she too had to make concessions. So now she was where it all apparently began. She was under the watchful eye of several special forces and a navy intel officer. She was granted permission to inspect the room, but was told of the incident that transpired in here before. She got the message. Do not get to close to the tapeworms in the aquariums. Or the large tapeworm-slug hybrid in the last tank.

So she went to do a visual inspection of what was apparently a device from a race even more advanced that these snakes that created them. Why would they use this? What was its purpose? She got the answers, when she got a transcript of what the Lucians and some woman told them. The Cylons were, apparently, created by a lower Goa'uld named Athena, who was a genius even for her people, at least on the technical side, to create a replacement cannon fodder race for these Jaffa. They were... A FAILED EXPERMINET! At best! Her blood boiled at that. For her to learn that while the Colonials created the centurions as a workforce for starters and later as a military force, they at least started with dumb automatons and went further later on. They never played with sentient organics from the start. This Athena was. And gave no regards for their sentience. If in the past the Cylon race hated the Colonials for not seeing them as equals, or life forms at the very least. But these Goa'uld... they were on another level entirely. They saw something that would qualify under any scenario as a sentient life form and used it like a tool. Humans and other races across the galaxy. And then they go and create her ancestors. And the same thing happened. Sentient or not, feeling or not, their sole purpose, in the eyes of this snake race, was to serve and die if they deem it so.

Now she saw how them and humans were in a similar boat, when it came to fight for their rights. The religious morons in the Colonies would disagree, since for them this galaxy belongs to humans alone. She couldn't wait for that bomb to go off. She saw Nagala's problems clump up in the future. How to not piss off the religious groups who would say to, let's say the Jaffa, that they shouldn't exist since an old book said so, and on the other hand not to piss off the Jaffa by such a statement.

But that was not her problem. This device was. And Athena's notes. She began reading the logs on the console in the room that was hooked up to the Asgard device. Good thing the Colonials had this gibberish translated. The part that interested her was why these new aliens apparently used this technology. Immortality though technology. And apparently they had been using it, successfully, for millennia. But she also learned that they had paid a price for that. One of them, Loki... interesting, also part of Colonial mythology, was experimenting on humans to solve this issue. Sterility, that was the issue. Something her own race was facing.

After hours of reading the content and trying to find things the Colonials might have missed in Athena's notes, the requested to be given a place to write down her thought and perhaps even get some lab equipment. The Colonials had anticipated this, as several laboratories had been assembled in vacant rooms in this base. One for the archeologists still inspecting this place and the surrounding areas. They were, at the moment, busy scanning a statue from the so called Tomb of Athena. Next to it was a laboratory specifically set up to analyze anything any gate expeditions would bring along. Right now they were testing some blue liquid that was apparently a potent poison for the snakes. Then there several smaller all purpose labs and at the end of this dead end corridor was the main lab meant for analysis of anything of Goa'uld origin. All of the labs were at full capacity, but one. All their work was only preliminary here, once given the green light that the stuff was safe, it would be shipped to Picon.

So now there she was, in the only unused lab, writing a report herself. One Nagala would read and forward via the alien FTL comm system in the alien ship now docked at the expedition fleet still en route here. But she wasn't alone. The guards remained outside, this time, but the navy intelligence officer remained. No way would they let her unguarded and unsupervised waltz around this place. In the worst case scenario she still might be a double agent. Nagala was taking no more chances.

Sitting at the workstation, she sighed as she was nearing the end of her report. The door to the outside was still open as a new pair of footsteps alerter her to a newcomer.

"I see they put you in here... great." It was Gaius. He sat at the only other free station, right across her.

"Gaius... I..."

"I have work to do, so don't disturb me." It was a cold, direct answer. Almost official.

She was shocked at this kind of response. "Gaius, I... I..." She really didn't know how to begin. "I missed you."

No response.

"How have you been?"

Still nothing.

"I see they have been treating you nicely. You've been putting your talents to good use..."

"You are distracting me."

He really didn't want this. Not now. Not here. Not her.

"Gaius, why... why are you... why avoid me. Ever since I had the talk with Nagala you avoided me like the plague."

He stopped writing and put his glasses down. "You honestly expect an answer to that? After what you did to me? What I had to go through because of you!?"

Now she stood up and took several steps back.

"Can you close the door, please?" He asked the intelligence officer.

"I'm not leaving."

"I know. I just don't want everyone who doesn't know about... me and her, to hear this."

The officer shrugged and obliged Baltar's request. Then he leaned into the wall next to the now closed door, crossing his arms. This will be good.

Baltar stood up as well. "You want to talk nice, after everything that happened? You truly must think I'm a moron, don't you? Treason! That was what I was facing! And you calmly take the phone out of my hand and... what was the sentence again? 'What's the point, Gaius. In a few hours there won't be anyone left alive to charge you with anything.'" He closed the gap between them. "Tell me, did you enjoy it? Did your sadistic, murderous Cylon mind love seeing me squirm like an animal in the slaughter house!?"

She now had enough and took a defensive pose. "I was not the same person back then!"

"How convenient!"

"Are you the same Baltar you were weeks ago? These experiences changed you, haven't they? Well, that's not something exclusively reserved for humans!" She closed the distance now as well. And she knew that of the two of them, Baltar was not really intimidating. "We were used, betrayed and left for dead. So excuse me, if our parents ended the first war only to be betrayed themselves and us then having our memories altered. I won't deny that in a way the propaganda Cavil fed us infuriated me. How humans treated us in the past. But the story got a WHOLE LOT MORE COMPLICATED, HASN'T IT? Now we're all fighting for survival, to reclaim our history. The true history. You want to be mad at me, fine! I can play that game too!" Returning to her station, she continued with her work, ignoring him.

Baltar couldn't stay here. He'd find a laptop or something and write the damn report on the remote-control center and the new ring iris for Nagala. He went for the door.

Before he could leave, the officer, who had been observing all of this, grabbed him by the arm. "You ain't a good diplomat."

"What do you care?"

"I don't. Just don't want to tell Nagala the deal with them is off cause you blew a fuse. Not that I blame you... women, right? Same, no matter the race? They try to kill you and then expect flowers."

The officer restrained a laugh. Baltar stormed off, not amused. Neither was Caprica, who heard that last remark.

On the Galactica, Saul and Bill were dancing around their own need to have a discussion. They both acted as if nothing had changed. Both doing their jobs. One prepping the defense of the planet by positioning the ships here to close any gaps above the Colonial base on the planet as well as to how best deploy all fighters once they would launch when Cavil's forces arrive. The other... coordinating the working on the ship, but without yelling. Like a lion that had his teeth pulled.

Saul walked to the planning table where Bill had just finished a talk with the General on the planet. "We have 17 suicide raptors ready to go. On your end?"

He handed him the report. "Chief got that crippled engine working again, but told me to tell you to not expect it taking any blasts and stay operational."

"Hm... good thing I convinced Nagala to keep the both of you here for the time."

"Yeah... hard to forget." He turned to the entrance of the CIC, the armed special forces guards that were keeping an eye on things. Him most of all. "I have a... suggestion, if you'll hear me out?"

"Mr. Gaeta, get that wireless link to those Ha'tak of our initiated in the next 10 minutes. We can't wait any longer. We'll need their telemetry for the suicidal raptors."

"Don't worry, sir. We'll be done." Felix responded from under his station's console as he was on top of this issue. The Captured Ha'tak's would forward the data as to where the remote controlled raptors would jump. The alien dradis was far superior in that way.

Bill put Saul's repot away. "Now, tell me."

"If I... I mean, since I am a Final Five and Cavil really has a hard-on for us... we should explore that option as a possibility to, well, piss him off. You said that making him so angry he'll focus on us was your plan."

"It is. Go on."

"Well, he really wanted us to resurrect after that plan of his would had... well..."

"Killed us all. Yes, get on with it."

"The only reason he would bother with such a complex and unneeded plan, was to gloat. To prove we were wrong. We who gave him life. If he was willing to create such a complex attack and infiltration plan that took decades of planning and then to make such a stupid flaw to put us, the only ones who had the resurrection knowledge, into the enemy camp, so to say... he really hates us. He really has unresolved issues."

"Agreed on that. So how do we use that?"

"Once he arrives, let me talk to him first. Not you. Let me throw egg on his face. Goad him."

"He's not stupid, if the reports can be believed. He'll know it's a ruse."

"That's the point. He'll know it as well if you or anyone else talks with him over wireless. With me we increase the 'piss off' chance more. Or the Chief and Anders... take your pick."

Adama pondered at this proposition. Before he could response, the dradis beeped.

Dee got an update. "Sir, raptor 77 from the surface, returning from the patrol. They say... A Cylon fleet was spotted. 14 Ly from here. They floored it back the moment they saw them."

"That's it then." Adama knew the time has come. "Call Kobol and tell them to get ready. Launch all vipers from every ship and the surface. Tell the Al'kesh Commanders to keep an eye on their FTL dradis. Once they spot them, we'll only have a jump or two warning time." As everyone went to work, he eyed Saul again. "You get to talk to him first. Until then, your still the XO of this ship! Find your balls again and get my ship combat ready!"

Saul knew this was intended as a kick in the rear to get his old flame back. "You got it, Bill!"

As Bill went to see how Felix was progressing and left Saul to deal with his damn job, he saw the modification he had made to the suicidal raptors plan. If they intend to use the FTL jamming equipment those Lucian engineers created, to keep themselves safe from Cavil's own suicide tactic, they'll have to keep their own suicidal raptors in a different orbit, or their own FTL engines will be rendered useless. So once they launch, they'll be parked at a safe distance. Far from any large viper concentrations. And their own nukes not active until seconds before jumping, to not alert Cavil's forces. He also decided to not park them all in one place. Half would remain on the surface and begin deployment once the ones in orbit would be used up. All the ones with the Earth nukes would remain on Kobol as well, only deployed once Bill gave the order.

There was one additional issue with this plan. It gave them more security and chance to succeed, but took the flexibility from them. He needed to assign several viper wings to babysit these raptors and positions they would be parked at. As well to keep an eye on the corridors they would take, once launched from Kobol. And that honor was given... to the one CAG that was bitching about it. Kara really hated this assignment. No matter how much Bill pointed out that she was basically given the second most important mission for Kobol's defense. When she asked what the first mission was and if she could take that one, he responded with a resounding: No, that mission is mine.

"At least it won't get dull any time soon."

Caprica, Zarek's office

He was still in a foul mood. All plans he might have had... gone. As he passed his secretary, she tried to stop him.

"Sir, you've got..."

"Not now!" He slammed the door behind him, making it clear to NOT be disturbed.

Slamming all of his documents on the desk, he took a deep breath, trying to calm himself down.

"Rough day?" Someone was here. In the den part of the room. Sitting on the couch, and by the looks of it, already helped himself to his stash of ambrosia.

But he did recognize the voice. "You took your sweet time."

He joined him and poured himself a shot as well. "That's gratitude for you. It takes me time, cause I'm thorough. So, Tom, you goanna tell me why you're in such a mood?"

"None of your business."

"If I'm to remain your lawyer, it will have to become my business."

"Mr. Lampkin... don't push your luck. Your good, for what I currently need. A out of the box representative, should things go south. That said... the President has me by the balls. I may not need your services, if I keep my head low, but..."

"That's not what you want. So stuck between a rock and a hard place then? Hm... did she offer to keep any captured Chronicler statement out off any prosecutors hands if you play ball?" Tom didn't respond. But his silence wouldn't shut up, if you knew how to listen. "Well, I have bad news for you then."

"You found nothing?"

"Not nothing, just no where enough to stalemate the Presidents nuke. I have a knife at best." He opened his envelope and put out pictures and documents. Tom began inspecting them.

"What am I looking at?"

"The pictures? Well, our current President coming out of Adar's office, late into the night."

"So? All politicians do long shifts. If..."

"You don't get it. Look at her clothes. Not unlike they... ehm... well, you know."

Tom took a closer look. It was a small thing, but he noticed them, like an upper button left open, some small smudges on different parts of her outfit... "Wait... wait... They had an affair!?"

Romo shrugged. "Possibly. I'd believe it. But would the public? More so if it comes from an adversary who wants' to burn her? No, as I said, you'd bring a knife to a gun fight. But there were rumors. And it was not just Laura. Adar was... well..."

"He was not a playboy or charmer, let me tell you that."

"Like you?" That was a low punch by Romo, but he did that as he knew he was in no danger. "Anyway, Adar knew how politics worked. And how power worked. Power attracts. Women more than men. And... I believe it was more a friends with benefits situation. And our current President may have used that to get Adar see her perspective."

"Unless you have anything solid like a hidden camera catching them in the act... this ain't even worth to confront her over."

"Yep. Not even mutual assured destruction. You'd be back in jail and she'd probably win the upcoming election. The President who led the Colonies in the war has a powerful ring to it. She has no one to really challenge her. Except..."

"Yeah, me. And I'm on a fraking leash!" He inspected the last item Romo brought him. A secret report. "What about this?"

"Just some weird inconsistencies, linked to that redirected money in the military. In this image, you can see MP's from that new off the book section escorting the Presidents current assistant, Ms. Foster, to a military raptor and..."

"And?"

"And well, she has yet to be seen after this. Don't know where she is. Now I don't care if they buried her alive somewhere, the interesting thing is why?"

"Why indeed." He put everything inside the folder again. "Thank you for this. I hoped for a smoking gun, but... better than nothing. I'll keep you on my payroll. For the worst case scenario."

Tom returned to his desk and put the folder into his safe. "By the way, you find out how the Chroniclers were burned?"

Romo finished his drink and was making his way out. "No, no idea." Tom suspected he did know something, but that man's poker face... unreadable.

Minutes later he was outside the seat of Colonial power. He had received a buzz from one of his 'employees'. But talking to one of them so close to where Colonial security would monitor all comm traffic was not a good idea. Even more so if he uses his scrambler to not be listened into. They'd detect the scrambler on the spot and red flags would go up. Since they were illegal for all but intelligence and military officers. Around 30 minutes and a lot of traffic later he finally arrived in his office.

"OK, what do you have?"

"Boss! Finally. I thought they got you too…"

"Focus. Please." He could hear how the person he was talking with was out of breath and in a state of panic. Something went wrong. "What happened?"

"Well, I hired a man to contact the military guy you mentioned. For the stuff, you know."

"Yes, get to the point."

"Well, I observed it all from the balcony of a hotel from where I could see the contact area and keep an eye on my mule."

"Yes, just like I taught you. So?"

"Well, not long after he made contact and made the exchange, cash for info, he went to his car and left."

"The tracker on the car?"

"Worked. I knew where he was going. But the informant, that's the problem. He was jumped once my guy left. Military MP's and probably intelligence services as well. But…"

"Your mule was tagged and followed, wasn't he?"

"Yeah he was. I realized he'd not come far, so I cleaned my room up and checked out. Once I was in my car, I called him with the scrambler gear. They must have picked up on that, as he only got one sentence to me before they must have rammed his car."

Romo waited. "And? Do I have to guess what he said?"

"Em, no, sorry boss. He said one sentence: 'They have Kobol'. Any idea what that might mean?"

Romo had a pretty good idea. That damn expedition fleet. If Laura had a foothold on Kobol and that planet existed, she'd be unbeatable in any pools right now. But… if HQ knew this, somehow, why was she not bragging about it? There would be no need for a new election for now. She'd be without any opposition as no one would want to challenge her. Even Zarek, so no need to tell him this. "NO. You may have been burned after this. Destroy the phone and collect your last paycheck from me. You won't hear from me for a while. But I will contact you in a few months again."

"Right. Hear from you soon, boss…"

Romo ended the call. He then took his phones ID card out and smashed it. "So much for this…" He checked his watch. A few minutes until his other customer would arrive.

They have Kobol. That surprised him, for sure, but why not tell it? There was more to this. Something bad attached to the Kobol part. Either bad in the very meaning of the word, or it would have repercussions here in the colonies.

He prepared his office for the guest and set two tea cups on his desk. This may be only his rented Caprica office as he moved his main one to Libran, but for Tom's case, he set up a temporary one here as well. One of the side effect of this was his latest client. He arrived first a week ago and was now here every day. But this client was different from the others.

And Romo, as he was now waiting for his client's arrival, knew that this would be the last time he'd meet this person.

A knock in the door later the client had arrived with a stack of papers and was sitting across him. "As promised. All the Chronicles stuff the military missed."

Romo took a fast glance over the stuff. Satisfied, he secured it in his safe. He saw his client waiting patiently. "Right. My turn." He passed a data drive to him.

The client took out a data scanner and inserted the drive. "Clean. Good."

"You still doubt me?"

"You taught me that. Never trust anyone completely." Satisfied, he began enjoying the tea.

"All too true. Like the tea? I tried a new combination. This one has a knock-out punch."

The client stopped drinking. He realized the meaning of that. Dropping the cup on the the floor he pushed a finger down his mouth, trying to get himself to throw up. He failed as seconds later he himself was next to the broken cup on the floor.

"Took the damn drug long enough, gave him enough to kill an elephant." He pulled out of his desk a new phone as well as a sidearm. "Yes, hello. Caprica PD, this is Romo Lampkin, private defense attorney, I'd like to report a sighting of a Cylon. Where? In my office, right now. Why am I so calm? I KO-ed him with tranquilizer. Yes I'm sure, a model Four, black, tall, but not bald and with a beard. Probably wanted to alter his appearance. Yes, please hurry."

He made another call. "Special Agent Arria Flaccus please, Hello Arria, Romo here. I may have something you will be interested in. What? Oh, just Cylon and Chronicler things. In fact… I just made a call to Caprica PD to arrest the sleeping model Four in my office. But I have more than a body for you. Better hurry…" He hung up, waiting to see who would arrive first.

Not more than ten minutes later and his office was swarming with cops. The Cylon was arrested as he was still KO-ed, and was dragged out to the van. But Romo was getting grilled by the Lt. of the cops at the scene. "Why in the name of our colonies did you do something so reckless?! You were in contact for a week! You should have called us the moment you knew who you were dealing with!"

"And because I didn't, I got far more than you would have."

"You still failed to disclose to what that is! I say again, open the damn safe!"

"Sorry, not going to happen." He looked at the door again, as if waiting for someone. The cops noticed it.

"What, you waiting for someone to rescue you from this? Look, pal, sleazy attorney or not, you have to know that you'd better start talking…" A knock at the door frame at the office entrance stopped the police Lt. He groaned as he realized who it was.

A woman in uniform holding her credentials up with more naval personnel behind her. "The rescue part? That's apparently me. Naval security, step aside boys."

"This is a civilian case lady…"

"Regarding a Cylon? I think not. Now, step outside so I may talk with my friend here. Because if you want a pissing contest on whose jurisdiction this is, you'll lose."

The police Lt. gritted his teeth, but gave in, whistling his people to go outside. He followed shortly.

"Ah, my hero. Arria, nice to see you again."

"Drop the act. I'm here for as long as you give me what you said you have. If you do, you get a medal. If not, the cops are welcome to you."

He stood up and went to his safe. Retrieving a laptop and a stack of paper files, he handed her and her agents everything.

A few minutes passed as they checked everything. "This paperwork will deal a final blow to any leftover Chroniclers in Helios Alpha, but… where…"

"The toaster. Thought he was clever. I wanted to do something about them for a while. He was infiltrating their group. So…"

"You made a deal. But what did you give him in return?"

"Oh, not much… open file 144A on the laptop."

She nodded to the agent working on the laptop. As the file was open, she was amazed. "You were selling political and partially military secrets to the enemy!? Are you insane!? This is treason, you moron!"

"Would be… but take a better look. Someone like you can tell if a document is either outdated or was rejected altogether by the current administration." He waited for her to see if he was lying. He wasn't.

"Frak… you sold them worthless trash. Data that really was out of date or was never implemented."

"Did you really think I'd sell out the colonies, my dear?"

She gave him a look of suspicion. "With you, one never knows." Ten more minutes passed, but she was satisfied. The other stuff he gave them was his own research. He had the Cylon tagged and hired his own people to track them. He got their deposit box numbers, accounts and names. He managed to burn the entire Caprica Cylon infiltration group that was left. If implemented now, before they realize they were burned and would escape, Caprica would be the first Colonial planet truly Cylon free.

She signaled her people. "Stand up, Mr. Lampin. You're coming with us for a debrief and apparently a medal." He did as asked. Once outside, they passed the still waiting cops.

She addressed the Lt. "The place is yours for dusting. As is the toaster. If your interrogation goes well, send us a copy. But remember…"

"Yeah, in the end you get him anyway." He eyed Romo. "And him?"

"He's off limits and coming with us. As is the content of the safe. Good day gentlemen." They entered the armored cars and drove off.

The cops went back inside and to work. "You really don't like him, do you Lt.?" The Detective of the case asked.

"No, I don't. He really covered all his bases. Called us cause it's the fraking law to call local law enforcement first when a Cylon sighting is made, then called them to make sure we can't probe him. But the real kicker… you do know who his latest client is? Whom he got out of jail?"

"No, not really. Don't care about spin-doctors like him."

"You should. Tom, fraking Sagittarion is a victim so blew up buildings, blah, blah, Zarek!"

"Wait, the current Quorum Representative?!"

The Lt. got annoyed as apparently from the looks of all the cops in the room, he was the only one who knew this. "Thank you all for playing. Gods… back to work, all of you! And Detective Clodius, get one from the undercover unit to trail Mr. Lampkin from now on."

"Ehm, sir, the navy guys…"

"Don't give a frak. Just do it."

M35-117, planet now named New Lantea, same time

The city was back the way the Earth expedition had found it. In a sea of water. But the night sky was definitely different.

And John Sheppard was currently enjoying the scenery and calm. He was in that damn chair for so long that after landing the city, he really needed to go. Now, he was taking a mental break. Let Elizabeth, Carter, McKay and Narim deal with the repercussions on what they activated. And the bugs really were tame. Unsettling, but tame.

"Colonel." He turned to see who greeted him.

"Colonel, Colonel." It were the Earth 304 CO's. They both flanked him on each side and leaned on the railings like he was doing. "What's this about? Cause I doubt you two came here for a social gathering."

"No, it's not." Ellis confirmed. "We need to talk. About the near cluster fuck that happened."

"What do you mean? We made it back here clean. The Wraith have no clue where we are and…"

Now Caldwell took over. "You were lucky. Admit it or not, but McKay once again said a lot but did little. Elizabeth was giving him and the other civvies far too much space to mess around and now the Tollans may be second-guessing us."

John didn't like where this was going. "The Tollans are our allies. Narim was the one who found the solution to this mess."

"Stumbled on it." Ellis corrected him. "And we're yet to see the long term…" He stopped as the clanking sound of a replicator were heard. Then two spider replicators went passed them into the ring room. "Ramifications of this… See? What guarantee do we have these things can really be contained. Remember the reports on how much damage the Milky way replicators did. How close we came to extinction?"

"McKay and Narim say…"

Now Caldwell took over again. "They say a lot when the day is long, right? Colonel Ellis and I were thinking if this entire operation wouldn't be better in military hands?"

Now John got it. He was in a way the military officer of Atlantis while they were at Weir's mercy. "Gentlemen, if this is your attempt at a hostile takeover…"

"No, not yet." Caldwell calmed him down. "But some of us…" He eyed Ellis. "Won't have the patience to clean Weir's mess for the foreseeable future. Let's check the fact, shall we?"

Ellis again took over. "The Tollans are militarizing, the Wraith are awake and hungry. Ba'al is still at large and the Jaffa are not the most stable or reliable ally. We kept Atlantis operational, we defended it, we found it! And now everyone wants a piece of the pie."

John now found himself in the tug war between the civilian Oversight committee and Military command. Great. The two uniforms trying to get him to side with them. Yes he was military anyway, but he was from O'Neill's school so to say. That meant trying to get along with everyone. Except the bad guys. Whomever they may be this week.

It was an open secret the military wanted Weir out and one of their own in charge, but the civilian sector didn't want that as in their opinion the military made a mess during the old Hammond SGC days far too often which allowed the Trust to take shots at this situation.

So for now, both sides needed each other.

"Look, sirs... I get it. Your under a lot of pressure from the Pentagon and other SG member nations. But it worked out."

"This time." Ellis added.

"And sometimes the military will mess up, or do I have to remind you what happened to my predecessor?"

"No one could have foreseen the status this galaxy was in or an enemy like the Wraith existing. What Colonel..."

"Weir told him to not do that mission. He gave the same lines you are now. Didn't save his career, did it? We're all humans, which means we make mistakes. If Elizabeth messes up, she'll be replaced. We all will. Until then..."

Caldwell saw this was getting them nowhere and knowing Ellis, he'd not end until either he'd get the result he wanted or something would happen. Court-martial worthy. "Ugh... fine, Sheppard. Just remember, we warned you. Now as for your mission..."

"Yeah, one hour left, then we depart for these... Genii as Teyla calls them. Didn't exactly have time to meet any locals in this galaxy. If we want to win their support..." He was getting ready to leave the two officers.

"One more reason for us to be in charge. I don't trust that woman. Or that man you found..." Ellis reminded John how untrustworthy anyone not from Earth was for him.

"But he has a point, Ellis." Caldwell reminded him. "We will need the support of the humans in this galaxy, if for no other reasons than manpower and intelligence."

John really appreciated that support. "Thank you, Colonel. Look, Teyla hasn't let us down yet. As for Ronon... he takes some getting used to."

Before John could leave, Caldwell stopped him at the door. "One last thing. That sub dermal transmitter working?"

"Em, yes? Why?" John remembered when they all got one inserted under their skin in a shoulder. The past missions before they began evacuation, warranted this new addition.

"New protocol. In a first contact scenario, a 304 is now needed to be either in planetary orbit or in the range of the short range distance of these new... implants. Just tap the area in your shoulder once to initiate the comm channel. We'll hear everything."

"Great... and if I go to the toilette and forget to turn it off?"

"Yeah... that would be embarrassing. Also, only you know about this, don't tell anyone in your team. The Daedalus will depart in five, with just enough time to get to that planet before you do. Once you talk with these people, if you need help, just turn the thing on."

"Yeah, great. I feel safer already."

Deep space, resurrection HUB, same time

In a Cylon version of a mess hall, the humanoid models were having a break themselves. The fleet made of Colonial and Cylon forces, was making good ground towards Kobol, but they were weeks out still.

Right now, John Cavil was having his first food after the last resurrection and un-boxing. Still poking questions at him were the other models with him. He had told them all relevant answers, but since his model had lied, murdered and manipulated everything in the background for so long, they didn't believe him. He couldn't blame them.

As even D'Anna finally relented and stopped asking questions, he managed to get to this otherwise ineffective intake of energy. He took a look around. There were some Colonial officers here as well, mostly from intelligence gathering units probably, but there was something else that peaked his interest. A human he now knew was named Karl Agathon, who was appointed as the head liaison to the Colonials, was having a strange and silent meal with two Eights at the table. cavil nudged Natalie next to him. "What's their story?"

She saw where he was looking at. "Oh, well, Boomer was the raptor pilot he was part off... and apparently he had feelings for her. And Sharon is the representative of the Eights and..."

"Ah, I see. What they call a love triangle?"

"Not exactly, but close to it."

"How did poor Boomer take it once she found out that she was literally fraking one of her father's?"

"Ugh... Thanks for that image..."

Cavil finished his meal. "I have to agree with my brother Ones, this energy intake is so limiting, but I have to agree with your model as well, it has its charms."

"Em, thank you? I think?"

"Just lay off the alcohol, the ability to lose control is a bit disturbing."

"I think your confusing me with Caprica."

Tobin System, one hour later

They managed to reach a closed door. They had been running for some time now, with breaks every so often. Every 500 meters a closed door halted their progress, but they were only closed, not locked off.

Marcus put his gear on the floor and inspected the team. "Well... that was... a nice warm-up."

Vala and Soren eyed each other. "Hope he's joking."

"Has to be. I'm about to cough my lung out."

They secured the perimeter. To their left and right the corridor continued for a while and stopped at a door again. Behind them was a now closed door not far from where they were taking a rest. But the front... that door was now different.

With the long run, the CO altered the plan. They'd skip the bridge entirely. No point going all the way up there. So a computer access room would have to do.

After Marcus saw Soren recover a bit, he pointed to the access console and he went to work, opening it and attaching the glowing cables from his Lucian gear to a portable hacking unit. Ajay had then linked his own gear to Soren's and ran the data stream through a translation program. Ajax could only observe, but he was learning with each interaction with the alien gear.

What Ajax and Soren were actually doing was the same they did hours ago, when they stumbled on a terminal. The group stopped and they accessed the terminal. It was quickly discovered that the place was really massive and complicated, but thankfully, the corridors were mostly straight. At least the ones leading to the core. So they took a peek. And that was all they did, as Soren noticed the defensive programs that were on alert for any data breaches. But it was enough to get their bearings. That led them to this place. One of the secondary access rooms for the mainframe. Now they only needed to figure out if it was safe to open the damn door, without causing an alarm, as a door like this might be monitored.

Hours of run time to the inner part of the pyramid with their gear and three people that weren't part of their Company and thus training regime, not bad.

Soren nodded to Ajax, signaling that it was safe. So they proceeded inside. A octagonal room with two access doors from the corridors they just came, pillars next to the walls, and gold everywhere.

Once again Soren and Ajax went to work, at the only terminal that was in this room. A standalone one in front of a what looked like a reinforced door. But this one really was different.

Marcus approached the door and stopped, inspecting it. "I can guess that the glowing sides of the door indicate a force field?"

Vala was next to him. "Yes. I wouldn't touch it, if I were you. I may shock, stun or even kill you..."

"Thanks for the heads up. Ajax, anything?"

Ajax was looking at Soren's progress. "Not good. This is it. The bastard encoded this with Ancient writing and a twelve layered barrier with over 60 symbols, per barrier. I'd need time to count the life times I'd need to get pass this, if I could read the damn thing. But at least we seem to have more peeking ability here... tell them. The good and bad."

"Right, the bad... As your friend just mentioned, no way of breaking this. It would be difficult enough without the language barrier... but we can still get in."

Marcus kneeled to him on the floor as Soren was leaning on the console his equipment was no hooked into. "How do you get in, without getting ?"

"Anubis was in a hurry to get this place modernized. He didn't get it all done. That's really good for us. First improvement he didn't add was... well, an actual AI program, written by himself, it seems."

"A Goa'uld written AI... yeah, I think I'd pass." Marcus agreed that it was better it was not installed. Better for them.

"Yes, the other bonuses, internal sensors, as we already noticed, not operational, as are most door sensors. But if we screw around too much, the automated security system will react. I can only know how, once I access the terminals in there. As for how to get in there... the hardware of this place is also lacking a bit. Anubis modified the power grid to, at one point, accept the six energy crystals he had."

Hearing this, Vala put her two cents in. "I can only guess, that after the other System Lords would be eliminated, he'd transfer them into this place to... em, power it up even more?"

"Yes, the projections were... impressive to say the least. Anyway, that also means that some security measurements were not implemented everywhere... " He looked up into the corner of the room. "According to his new plans, that airshaft should not be here anymore. And it leads inside, no barrier. Someone..."

Marcus got it and stood up. "OK people, we have a way in. Tech gear for the one who goes inside, so that the tech guys here can then instruct her how to shut this barrier down. So..."

"Yeah, yeah, I've seen this coming..." Jasmine went to take her gear off. She looked up to inspect the opening. "So, camera..." Ajax threw her one. "Earpiece..." She checked the comm line. "So, meathead, give me a boost."

Marcus smirked. "Only because you asked nicely."

With his help, she managed to grab the edge and begin pulling herself into the opening. She barely fit. "And stop staring at my ass!"

As she disappeared into the opening, Marcus motioned the remaining people in the room to get the gear ready to move again... when something was off. He snapped his fingers and signaled them to get behind the pillars. Ajax recognized it and pulled Soren on his feet so they removed all the cables from the console. Marcus then grabbed Valla and dragged her into cover as well.

They all kneeled down, suppressing their breathing. "What's wrong?" Vala asked Marcus, whispering.

He put his hand over her mouth. In complete silence, she could now hear it as well. A door had just opened up in the connecting corridor. "Jasmine, we're going silent. If you don't hear from us, then suspect that we're dead." That was Marcus last order, before he turned his wireless earpiece off. Every Cerberus team member clenched his weapon.

As the door to this room opened up, the same they had used not too long ago, footsteps were heard. No one dared to peek. But from out of the corner of the pillars he was hiding behind, Marcus saw it. The image he was only given a description off. A fraking Kull solder.

And it was patrolling this area. It proceeded into the room to the console. It stopped in front of the console and inspected it. Did it notice any tampering? Marcus knew from the reports on these things that with what they had, they couldn't do anything against it.

The damn thing wasn't moving! And they couldn't stay silent forever. Marcus was contemplating on what to do. Sacrifice himself to buy his people time?

He didn't get the chance, as Vala, who was behind him, stood up and entered the center of the room.

What the frak is that woman DOING?! Marcus was now for the first time sweating bullets, but not because of any running.

"Frak me... clever girl." He whispered to himself as he saw what she was doing. She was already in her Kull gear during this, as Nagala had give her permission to take it for now. All she did was put the damn helmet on and... no one was the wiser.

The actual Kull turned around and inspected the newcomer. Inspecting the other Kull, it was a bit... lost. Then Vala walked past it and left the room, as if on patrol herself. As the doors closed behind her, the Kull, apparently satisfied at finding the person in the room, left as well, resuming its patrol pattern.

Everyone dared to breathe again. "Jasmine, do you copy?"

"Yes, boss. I'm inside, by the way, awaiting instructions. What was the issue?"

"We're not alone on this tub. Kull, patrolling."

"Frak. Where's it now?"

"Vala distracted it by imitating one. So, Ajax and Soren, guide her on what she needs to do, fast!" He hissed.

Several minutes passed, but Soren managed to instruct Jasmine what she needed to do. He also saw that this door was not yet connected to the mainframe, so shutting the barrier off would not be noticed.

Vala returned just as everyone was entering the new room, all glowing in red and with access terminals in every corner. In the middle was just one pillar, filled with glowing crystals. "Guess this is a computer core?" Ajax asked Soren, who was already hooking his gear up.

"You'd guess correctly." He proceeded to close the door and reactivate the barrier outside.

"So, do your magic... again." Marcus too took a break and leaned against a wall. "Frak, that was tense."

Jasmine leaned on the wall next to him. "Tell me about it. I was in that damn air vent, holding my breath and keeping still after you gave me the heads up. Frak, imagine if I had been the only one left."

"Frakrs are patrolling around. I can only guess it's because the security system was never finished. He left to attack Earth as we now know, got his ass handed to himself and never managed to return to finish the job."

"Yeah, and we were lucky because of the damn size of the place."

"Right." He saw Soren already at work, grimacing. "Oh boy, what now?"

"We have a problem."

"Yeah, I noticed." Marcus, Ajax and his officers all leaned down to see what Soren had found.

"I managed to get access to the mainframe from here. From here I can access the logs, inventory, schematics, the works, but... I can't manipulate anything. I can't shut the lock-out off, the automated systems, anything... If I try, the station will gas the entire place with a lethal chemical. It has mixed into it the Tok'ra poison as well."

Now that surprised the Colonials. "Guess Anubis wasn't taking any chances, even with his own race..." Marcus tried to understand Anubis thought process. "But wouldn't that kill the walking zombies out there?"

Vala threw him her Kull helmet. "Build in breathing apparatus. These things can even survive in no atmosphere for a while. And then there's that regeneration device. Speaking of Kulls..." She went to sit next to Soren while Marcus inspected the helmet. "Can you see in that database if they are mentioned. If we can detect them in the bases schematic display..."

"The internal sensors are not operational, as I already said."

"Yes, but Anubis would still want to know where his killers are and this place is enormous. Think about it. If he planned to install... that AI thing, if he did, he would want to give it the ability to coordinate the Kulls. For that, it would need their location. Perhaps they have... trackers on them?"

Soren got what she was thinking and went to work, scouring the database for any info on the Kulls. "Oh, crap..."

"Now what?" Marcus set the helmet aside.

"Em... she was right, there is a tracking program for the Kulls in here. It's already working, so I can take a peek... but there's a really bad news here as well..." He activated the display on the main terminal that was stretched across an entire wall section. The level of the station was now shown that they were on right now. It was enormous, but several dots appeared on the representation of the station, all moving.

"Damn..." Jasmine was first to the display and began counting. "67... 72 Kulls on this level alone, boss."

He joined her, crossing his arms. "Perhaps, but based on the size of this place, that's really small. If we multiply this with the amount of levels... frak, we're looking at a possibility of tens of thousands of these things. This changes my plan."

"I'll say."

His attention was on Soren again. "If this is the good news, what's the damn bad news then?"

Soren changed the levels on the display, moving several dozen levels up, showing now a narrower station, mostly the pyramid, as on that level there was no superstructure and dry-dock any longer. Over half of the entire level was filled with dots. But they were red, not blue, and not moving.

"OK, what are we looking at?"

"Kulls... lots of them. The Alliance heard rumors that Anubis had three Kull production bases."

"So did I." Valla confirmed.

"One on Tartarus, one on Delmak and the third one was just a rumor."

"Yes, the Tartarus facility was mostly destroyed and Ba'al took what he could from Delmak before the Free Jaffa invaded. So now we know where he intended his main facility to be located after he lost Tartarus."

"Tartarus? Great." Marcus said with annoyance. That name was well known to the Colonials who were believers, like him. Another gut punch. "So his new main production base is here?"

Soren nodded. "All those dots are Kulls in stasis pods, either waiting to be activated, still lacking their programming... or only half grown. Imagine if the Lucians or Ba'al had found this place..."

"I can imagine quite a bit." Vala responded. "Good thing I sold this to you guys. Ba'al would finish constructing it and imprinted himself on the Kulls here. The Lucians... probably the same."

Marcus was formulating a new plan. "How many are there?"

"No official data... But it did have the capacity to produce... damn, 2000 fresh Kulls every week, if fully operational with the six power crystals. Those were the projections. According to the inventory... there should be... 25.000 Kulls in there. In various staged of growth. I'm basing this on the armor and regeneration devices in storage here. It says that they had enough for the first batch."

"Shit.

"But there is some good news as well..." He strolled down the Goa'uld text. "Apparently this is the report of the chief Goa'uld scientist here. They were running low on Goa'uld larva and genetic material. A new queen that would cooperate with them was needed. For both items. He didn't have enough to create more after this batch."

"Fine by me... can you show me the list of ships already docked, which are already finished and if there are any damn Kulls on them?"

Soren once again went to work to do as Marcus asked. "There." He split the screen into two parts. On one side was the list of finished ships docked to the station, the other half had the same schematic and level of the station they were on right now. It was really zoomed out, to display all finished ships that were docked. And where.

Jasmine had a pretty good idea what her CO was planning. "You really want to steal a ship?"

"A ship? You think too small. Ships, as in plural."

"Yeah, and this automated system is just going to let us take them?"

"Nope. That's the fun part. Soren, what defenses are there in place to prevent any ship theft? I mean besides the station shooting the crap out of any ship that would manage to get loose, docking clamps... those things?"

"Ehm... one moment. OK, the ships are linked to the stations systems. We try anything, it can remotely shut the ships down. If we manage to get them undocked, the recall devices on the ships can do the same. The... oh, well thats' good."

"What?"

"My fears that the ring transporters are monitored by the computer system, were not needed. Again, not yet brought on-line."

Now everyone got a bit pissed on him and Valla. Jasmine began sharpening her knife. "You're telling us we ran all this way for nothing? We could have just ringed here?"

He gulped. "Not all the way... look." He switched the display to the Kull location setting. Then he added the ring transporter locations on this level. The closer to the core you got, the more often a ring location was directly in the patrol route of at least one Kull. "We already had dumb luck. Imagine, us not knowing the Kulls were here and just ring in front of one."

Marcus calmed everyone of his people down. "Anyway, can we ring to the ships?"

"Yes, but that part of the security system... we try to take one..."

"Yeah, every Kull close to a ring on the station rings over and kills us."

Ajax was done listening and entered the conversation. "We'd need to disable the rings on a ship we try to take, before we trigger the alarm. That and the recall system. And how do you not trigger the alarm before undocking the damn ship?"

Marcus was aware of the issue. "Soren... show me each level of this station, one after the other, with all areas of interest, like armories, Kull chambers, power plants, hangars... the works."

"Em... there are hundreds of levels..."

"I know. If you find a list of where what is located, use that. Otherwise, we have no choice. If this place was designed to defend itself from anyone that wasn't Anubis, we can use that to our advantage."

So Soren did as asked, Marcus and his people began looking at each level, one at a time. But... he also eyed the ship inventory list. He had his eye on an Anubu'rak class, that damn Command ship that Anubis had. He'd be damned if he didn't get something bigger than a Ha'tak for the Colonies.

Kobol, three hours later

General Atkins had put the entire planet into condition one. Everyone was ready to defend their precious home. But nerves were tense.

On the bases dradis they had picked up an approaching fleet. At first they had only detected the FTL signatures as the approaching fleet made a jump, an energy signature spiked. Once they began getting closer, they detected the capital ships as well. Now they were already in the system, at the outer gas giant. Now the Cavil force would either approach via sub-light or make the last jump at some point.

Once several scout raiders appeared and jumped out a few seconds later, they got their answer. Jump-in it is.

In the Galactica CIC, Bill was the calm in the storm. He knew that what was approaching could not be avoided. So why whine about it. Sometimes fate throws you a curveball.

He was keeping an eye on the Galactica dradis. Felix had the feed from the three Ha'tak's, whose dradis saw the Cylon fleet at the system edge, but Bill kept a firm look on his old dradis system.

He also knew that they had to know the Colonials knew. They weren't even hiding, using a planet as cover. Yes, they didn't know the alien dradis could not detect them, if they remained behind a planet and would not spot a jump in if made danger close to a planet, as the planets own size would hide the energy signature.

Then the dradis began beeping wildly. Cavil's forced had arrived. And they were not playing around as the moment they appeared in high orbit of Kobol, they launched a salvo of missiles. And judging by the radiation alarms going off more than one was a nuclear one.

Saul barked the orders to take all defensive measures needed. just like they planned. And just like Bill predicted, most of the missiles were not aimed at his taskforce. But at the planet.

And his countermeasure worked, as the vipers managed to intercept all of them. Using the usual Cylon countermeasure against WMD attacks against them.

Bill went to Felix station. With the greater detail than the old Colonial dradis, he also saw that Cavil was no one's fool. He learned from their past encounter. Or more precisely, the survivors must have gotten him an after-action report on what happened in the Hub assault. They had to have calculated the effective range of the plasma weapons, as this force was now just outside weapons range. And spread out, to not give them a single nuclear target. Another adaptation.

"Like I said, Cavil's no one's fool. Saul, time to piss in his pool, shall we?"

Saul knew what that meant. He nodded to Dee and took the phone from the planning table.

"Cavil? This is Saul Tigh. Respond, you backstabbing bastard!"

The wireless buzzed a bit, but he got a response in the open. "Now this is a surprise, father? I take it Adama gave you the phone to rattle my cage?"

"You rattle everyone cage. Why do this? There's no gain in it for you."

"You know what a sour looser I am. I mean, the last time, I killed dear old and departed number Seven. Oh, and all of you."

"It doesn't have to end like this. The other models managed to see reason, why can't you?"

"Because justice always reminds me of what I have to do to remedy the situation and balance the scales."

"Let's face facts, you don't know what justice is. You never knew! It's just a word now that you use as a scapegoat for your own failings. But let's forget about that. Where's Ellen, you sick frak!?"

"Well, she's in the Colony ship, having fun times with my other copies. Don't worry, if you survive today, you'll get to meet her soon."

"That's where your wrong. You can't win. Not this time."

"Just because you have gained some ships and technology from other sources, because I can't imagine a monkey to come up with such impressive upgrades and... well, those pyramid designs are downright dumb, I have to say, you know how the first battle ended between my forces and yours."

"Yes, you lost!"

"Yes, but as the old saying goes, failure is the best teacher!"

The dradis beeped again. seconds later the Galactica CIC shook a bit as several nuclear explosion hit her and the other four ships in orbit. As Felix inspected the data, the raiders made a suicide run. But their countermeasure meant they appeared outside the shield perimeter.

"Shields held at 97%, sir."

Bill still had a neutral look and gave Saul a nod to continue.

"You were saying?"

"Seems the monkey can learn. I gave those raiders the order to jump passed those barriers of yours, but... well, if at first you don't succeed..."

The CIC shook again. And again. The five ships under Colonial control had remained a safe distance from the vipers in low planetary orbit to spare them from the impacts. But it took cavil five tries to understand the situation. The Colonials had an answer to his suicidal attacks.

But before the next move on this chess board could be made, Bill got an emergency call from Kobol.

"General Atkins, what is it?"

"Someone's dialing in. And it ain't Picon. No wireless contact made. But they are attacking with some sort energy weapon on the other side. The iris is holding, but if we wanted to evacuate, we can't now."

Bill's grip on the phone tightened. Frak and hell, this is the last thing they needed. "New orders! Prepare for possible incoming attack. Get us into a lower orbit and tell the vipers to stay clear! Atkins, get all the raptors we have for our own suicidal counterattack, ready! All but one. One with an Earth nuke. I fear we're about to get company! And get the base ready. Those weapons intended to attack targets in orbit, we might need them!"

He put the phone down and returned to Saul at the planning table. "Stop talking with him. We can't goad him into this anymore. Not if what I fear might happen."

"What is it, Bill?"

"Problems, fraking big problems."

His plans were out the window, if bad comes to worse. He needed to swat Cavil's forces off, one attempt at a time. For as long as Cavil will want to keep playing this game and just go all out. He had 42 basestars plus support. So he had raiders to spare and to suicide into any target he wants.

If Bills fears came true, Cavil's forces here might still be of some value to him.

Tobin System, one hour later

In a much smaller computer room, Ajax was under the console, ripping out a device, cables and all. "Fraker... won't let go... There."

He straightened himself up and looked at the Cerberus Company tech guy at the console. "Nice job. With this one, the one in main engineering and on the bridge, that makes all three recall devices on this ship."

"Yeah... Marcus you hear me."

"Yes. Status?"

"Chalk up one more Ha'tak bug free."

"Nice. We're up to 17 so far. Six Ko'tak, one Re'nak and seven Del'tak. Just wish those damn Command ships of his weren't locked out with extra security."

"We can't be too greedy."

For over the past two hours they had organized a raid. Using the location of the Kull's on the display, the Lucian tech guy kept them out of harm's way and guided them on how to bypass some ship systems, where to look for the recall devices and how to remove them without causing an alarm to go off and how to shut off the ring transporters inside the ship they would be trying to take.

During all of this Vala used her disguise to get access to the main armory, where many Kull full body armored suits were located. That area was heavily patrolled, but once Marcus and several of his people managed to get in with Vala's help, they suited up as well.

They placed small proximity sensors on strategic places, just in case should their ability to track the Kull be removed. They also went to place all their explosive devices in some sensitive areas, like that secondary computer access room where Soren currently was. They would need a distraction.

"Too bad we can't take all of this with us. Like the entire fraking station."

"Don't be greedy, Jasmine. We take what we can and makes logistically sense."

The way they were doing it he could only spare a few people per ship. So if boarded, they could easily be overwhelmed.

A few minutes later, the last ships meant to be stolen, were ready. Now all they needed to do is make the station release its grip on them and to get some distance. And they would need to. Soren noticed another problem. Something even he would need time to solve, on every ship, one at a time. The computer network on every ship was modified to be vulnerable to remote access from the station. A second defense layer to the recall devices. So even with them removed, the station computer could take remote control at any time.

To counter that, they also had to manually shut all long range comm systems on the ships, or risk losing them. They would be stuck to short range only.

Based on that, Marcus ordered the Al'kesh pilot they left behind, to make his way to a set of coordinates they agreed upon as a meeting area, once the raid was done.

On the bridge of the Re'nak, which Marcus for obvious reasons chose as his HQ, he was overseeing the final stages of this plan. One would think to only take the biggest stuff and leave the destroyers behind, but more of the bigger stuff is not always better. Besides, the bigger ships were harder to de-bug as the smaller and to check for any hidden sleeping Kull or Jaffa. And the longer they stayed, the bigger the chance that they will slip up somewhere and just die.

Marcus inspected the tech guy next to him as he was manipulating the engineering console as Soren instructed him to. "So, how's it look?"

"Well, if nothing else, it will make a big bang, if that station's computer doesn't buy a reactor overloaded."

Marcus plan was a simple one. Simulate reactor overloads on every ship they want. The station, for self preservation reasons, will release its hold on them and remotely via close range comm system, move them to a safe distance. Only after attempting to prevent this overload. Which it will fail at, since it is not a real AI and can't think creatively and the Kull's won't have access to the ships any longer as in addition to shutting the transporters off they sealed the airlocks. And the Kulls are killing machines, not engineers.

Now all they needed was to evacuate the remaining personnel from the station. Soren included. He really earned his paycheck today.

As did Vala. These ships were already fully stocked on fighters, Tel'tak's and Al'kesh. So one of those was hers, once they return to the Colonies.

Marcus kept the transporters on the ship he was on, active just for this evacuation.

On the station, Soren had packed up and they deactivated the barrier to the entrance. He inspected the display one last time to see the location of the nearest Kull. It was making it's rounds and would be back in the room connected to this one in a few minutes. Their target, the transporter platform, was in its patrol path as well.

Exiting into the corridor, they were as careful as when they arrived. Passing through the connecting corridor, they had arrived at the platform.

Dragging the last of the appropriated gear and putting it on the platform, Soren activated it. Now it was only Vala in her Kull gear, one other Colonial in Kull gear, two other Colonials in their standard gear and Soren himself.

As they stepped on the platform to initiate the transport, the door to this corridor section opened and... a Kull spotted them.

"Fraker heard the rings or altered his patrol route and came back faster than anticipated! Go! Go!" The Sergeant in the group yelled as they opened up on the Kull, with no effect.

As they materialized in the corridor next to the main hangar on the Re'nak, the Colonial Sergeant activated his wireless. "Colonel, were on board, but shut the transporters off! A Kull spotted us!"

As they cleared the platform, it triggered again. "Frak! Too late. Colonel Marcus, we have company!"

On the bridge, Marcus gritted his teeth. Frak, not this! He grabbed his heavy anti centurion machinegun and stormed out of the bridge. "You two, stay here and proceeded with the plan!" He yelled at the technical personnel. "Everyone else on me!"

The station went on alert and reacted to the weapons fire it detected inside. All the Kulls were redirected to the transporters platforms to gain access to the ship they were on. Once that was seen as impossible, they ringed to the nearest airlock and began shooting at the closed hatch in an attempt to gain access.

The station then detected the simultaneous energy build up in the reactors of the ships the Colonials managed to commandeer.

At first it reacted as predicted. It went into the ships systems via short range comm system and tried to stop the overload. That failed as Soren made sure a manual shutdown was needed. But the computer on the station was not as dumb as predicted. I gained access to the internal sensors of the ships and saw the intruders on them. It would not let them go without a fight. To prevent them getting blown out into space, they managed to manually override the door system as well, but life support was a different matter.

But for some reason the station didn't attempt to turn that off. Yes, they'd have hours of air until they'd have problems... was it expecting that?

"Frak..." One of the tech guys cursed.

"What?"

"Look at this. The clamps are released, on every ship... but it still has remote control of the nav system. Look where it intends to send us?"

"Shit... an impact course with the local gas giant. This is bad."

"Yes. That fraker who programmed that thing rather see his property destroyed than in our hands."

They both looked at the lower part of the nav console. It was open as they gained access to the nav system manually to stop something like this from happening. All they needed to do was to pull a specific red crystal out and they get manual control from here. Then the station computer can go and frak itself. But they also knew what it would do then. Open fire and direct all the mines to their ships. They wouldn't last for a minute.

"Ajax to Marcus, do you read me?"

They reached for the wireless on the weapons console. "Colonel Marcus ain't here right now. This is Sergeant Gens. we have problems here."

"I noticed. What went wrong. Who triggered the alarm ahead of schedule?"

"The last people on the station... a Kull spotted him and IT is now on this ship! Marcus went down to assist..."

"Frak... well, he'll really hate me for this later. The only way we can salvage this mission... is if some of us take the fall... and it's going to be me and the two friends of yours on this ship. And even then there will be more casualties."

"What?"

"The moment we pull that crystal, even if all of us do it at the same time that station turns on us and blows us up. Because as we remove the damn crystal, as Soren programmed the damn thing, the reactor returns to normal and all comm units on the ship go dark. Meaning we regain control. Frak... if only that Kull hadn't... I'll do it first and open fire on the station."

"That's suicide!"

"Also the point. There's no other way. I'll count to ten, then after five more seconds, you all do it and floor it. I doubt all will make it anyway. And tell Marcus... Sorry I couldn't have that drink with him. Blood and honor!"

In silence they saluted Ajax and their two friends on that ship they knew were already dead. "Blood and honor."

The original plan was now truly fraked. If they hadn't been discovered, they would have let the station remain in control and navigate the 'seemingly' about to explode ships to a safe distance from it. Then once sufficiently away, they remove the crystal, take control and floor it. With greater distance between them and the station, more if not most, would have made it. Now that the damn thing knew the ships were boarded, it wanted to get rid of them, ships and all. To counter this, they would have to take full manual control ahead of time, while still in close weapons range, where they can be torn to shreds. Ajax was right. Some would have to die for the rest to make it. And the only reason they had considered this heist was because Soren discovered that Anubis tweaked the hyperdrives on the ships currently docked and being constructed here. They were immune the stations FTL jamming that stranded them here. If that was not the case, they'd had to shut that off first or the station would have been able to prevent them escaping.

Once Ajax' Ha'tak opened fire, the station did the same. The mines began swarming it and the shields crumbled to the heavy fire. Seconds later, the other ships all around the station that it released, began flooring it from the station itself. As Ajax' ship exploded, the station switched targets. Even on the Re'nak they felt the incoming weapons fire.

As the survivors arrived via the short hyperspace jump to the gathering area, their Colonial wireless were used to communicate. Five Ha'tak, two Ko'tak and one Del'tak were gone, destroyed by the firepower of the station and mines.

Before this all happened, the mess in the corridor was only getting worse as the Kull went to work and shot the two Colonials that were wearing the regular armor. It didn't stand up to its weapons. Vala managed to gain some distance and returned fire with her own wrist mounted rapid fire plasma weapons, but knew they would do nothing to it. Soren went down the other corridor into the main hangar where a dozen Colonials had arrived, hearing of this problem.

As he passed Captain Hostilius, she shouted after him. "And keep running! This is our job now!"

Arriving at the corridor connection that Soren had just ran from, they heard a hard snap. Then the Colonial in the Kull uniform was thrown into the hangar, his head twisted by 180. Seeing their friend tossed around like a ragdoll really hit them hard.

"Grenades!" They all threw then into the corridor and fell back. "Get that RPG ready!" Jasmine shouted and took cover behind a parked Tel'tak.

Through the smoke in the corridor the Kull arrived, completely unfazed by the Colonial explosive devices.

The second it did that, the RPG was fired and hit it dead center. The Colonials fell back again, to the second row of parked vehicles.

No one believed it was down. And it wasn't. From the smoke came a rapid fire of plasma bolts. Two Colonials were mowed down as others took cover again. As it advanced to their location, Jasmine realized that if no other way if found, she'd have to vent the entire hangar, with them in it. They can't risk this thing surviving. Another Colonial was downed as it turned around the Tel'tak. Retreat was the only thing they could do. As the two men with the RPG got it reloaded, the Kull was distracted by weapons fire from Vala. She had returned at a different entrance to the hangar. But she too took cover once it returned fire. Armor or not, hers didn't have the regeneration device to compensate for the impacts the armor may not be able to absorb.

As it turned to its initial targets, it got a rocket to the helmet, throwing it into the Tel'tak parked behind it.

Again, to no avail. It stood up, getting its bearings and reengaged the targets.

Jasmine points to her men to split up and head for two different exits. It can't pursuit all of them. Taking her knife out, she made a prayer to Ares. "If I have to go, then I go for honor."

She pulled a spear from her back, made completely from metal. Quickly screwing the lower and upper part together, she steadied herself. Her dory spear, made like in old times, but with modern materials. What a way to go. Rushing around the corner of the Tel'tak, she attempted to hit a weak spot of the thing, like at the armpit or neck.

It grabbed the spear tip, stopping her in her tracks. Pulling her via the spear to itself, it grabbed her by the neck with one hand and keeping her suspended in the air. With the other hand it threw the spear to the ground.

Gasping for air, she knew it would either suffocate her or snap her neck like her friend before.

"HEY, ASSHOLE!" An explosive shot to the back shook the Kull into letting her go. It was Marcus and seven other Colonials solders that just arrived. He aimed his prized possession, the centurion killer, and let it loose. Explosive hit after explosive hit, but all he managed to achieve was to push it a bit back. And to dazzle it enough to not allow it to return fire. His people did the same, but only he had the large caliber gun. As Jasmine managed to regain her breath, she grabbed her spear and pulled back. Once she did, the Kull ate another rocket.

But try as they might, all they were doing was stalling it.

During all of this the ship itself began shaking. Unknown to Marcus, Ajax had just died.

A solid minute later, Marcus and his men ran out of ammo. The Kull was no worse for wear. Or was it. Before it could return the favor and Marcus would have been forced to do Jasmines plan of venting the place, she jumped from behind the thing, spear in both hands, and... managed to pierce it. In the neck and shoulder area. Apparently all the attacks did weaken the armor at the joints. And in the left neck area an opening had formed.

She was not Marcus' best hand to hand expert for nothing. She hit that spot exactly. And her spear burrowed deep into the things flesh.

Now she was literally hanging off the things back, holding the spear. The Kull however... stood still. Seconds later it fell face first to the floor.

Everyone approached the thing with great care. "OK, what happened?" Marcus asked no one in particular ad he extended his arm to help her back to her feet.

"I hit its heart, that what."

"If this things anatomy is similar to ours..."

Vala finally arrived as well. "Turn it around, please."

"They did just that. One could see where the armor plate at the torso was pushing out, as if something underneath was bulging out of the wearer. "Wow... really nice aim."

"Ehm... thank you?"

"Not the hear part. It could recover... well, if you pull the spear out. and if you hadn't hit the main regeneration unit, right behind his torso plate... wow. Remind me to not play knife games with you."

Marcus too was impressed. "You get a bonus for this."

She was proud of herself a bit as well. "You did save my ass with that barrage..."

"But it's such a nice ass. Would be a waste..." She did hit him tor that remark.

Vala hated to break this up. "Yeah, I have to remind everyone that there is still a situation outside."

"Frak, right." He noticed he had forgotten his wireless. Jasmine handed hers to him. "This is Marcus, report."

He got the report. The mission was over. And this last mess cost them. He lost over 40 people plus everyone here... frak. "Ajax... you old bastard. At least you went the way you wanted." He inspected the dead Kull. "Get this thing into a cargo bay and post guards there."

Jasmine was not a fan. "Why not just flush it?"

"Our bio experts will want to dissect it. We keep it. Jasmine, take care of business here, Vala on me. We're going to the bridge, get everything sorted and move out. I have a feeling the Colonies will need this hardware. And I hope Soren is OK after all of this."

Pegasus galaxy, unknown planet, same time

John, Teyla, McKay, Ronon and Ford were all sitting in an underground bunker, guarded by solders of what was apparently the Genii army. The whole farmers routine was a cover to appear as nothing threatening to the Wraith. Unfortunately they had underestimated McKay's ability to notice things, like radiation, and to be a pin in the ass.

At the table in front of them was a man who was inspecting their gear. Currently he was at Ronon's weapon. "So, Satedan? My condolences. But you of all people have to understand why we keep our existence a secret. By the way, this weapon... I know where it comes from."

"How, even I don't. And I use it daily."

"One of our trade partners'. we tried to get them to share some of their technology with us. So far not with much success. Travelers, I think. Unlike us, who hide, they live on their spaceships to be mobile."

"Really?" John for the first time showed interest.

"Yes, but back to all of you. Teyla was of use to us as long as she was in the dark. Now..."

"What? You do know if we don't return, others will show up to search for us."

"Colonel Sheppard, right? Do you know how many people go missing due to Wraith raids. You'd just... vanish."

"Yes, well, as nice as this all is, I can only guess the whole hide under the earth routine is more than just self-preservation." Rodney broke this conversation up. "I think you are having trouble enriching the unstable radioactive material to turn it into a usable weapon."

The leader, Cowen, was silenced. "Interesting. You managed to deduce all of that by just a few radiation samples?"

"Please..." McKay entered his 'I'm smarter than anyone in there' pose. "Half of my classmates back home could deduce that. Hell, half of them, me included, could build a bomb with the right material..." John kicked him. "Ow, what was..."

"You talk too much, Rodney!"

Just as John feared, Cowen, hearing this, saw a possibility. "We do indeed have trouble creating a large amount of a stable element..." He stood up and walked to Rodney. "You can make it for us?" This time McKay remained silent. "I'll take that as a yes. So... for your friend's life, you'll teach us how to..."

"Whoa, easy there pal. We're on a first date and you think you're at fourth base!" John stopped that train of thoughts in Cowen's head. "What's your plan anyway? You build nukes. Great. Then what?"

"Our spies search for the Wraith ships landed on a planet. While hibernating, they have to do that. We don't know why..."

"They have to regenerate their hulls, that's why..." Once again John kicked him. "Would you stop that!"

"Once you use that brain of yours for more than to stroke your ego!"

"Can I continue?" Cowen asked, not really in the mood for this performance he was seeing. "Then we transport a finished weapon to the ship and either detonate it as close as possible outside or get it inside."

"Yeah, you have several problems, as far as I can see it."

"Do tell, Colonel."

"One, you lack an annoying egg-head like him." He motions to Rodney. "Two, your delivery system really sucks. Third... the Wraith... yeah, you see... they're awake."

That alerted all Genii in the room. "They weren't asleep as long as the last time. They wouldn't do this if the galaxy hasn't recovered from the last culling."

John knew this would be a problem. Fortunately he foresaw a problem like this. "Let's talk about this in a better environment. Colonel Caldwell, whenever you're ready."

They disappeared in a flash of light, including their chairs they were tied down on, Cowen and their gear.

On the 304's bridge, now Cowen found himself in the prisoner position. As the crew untied SGA-1, John had to explain to his friends what had just happened, outside Cowen's ears. He was taken to a conference room himself.

"Good thing this new measure was implemented, aren't you?" Caldwell gloated a bit.

Sheppard didn't answer. "Let's just go and do some interrogating ourselves."

Kobol, same time

It was a stand-off. Cavil tried to find weaknesses in the Colonial defense. Sometimes he did get a raider to jump into the atmosphere. Several detonated with their nuked in high altitude or over the sea. No real damage done yet. Several even impacted on the base shield.

Speaking of the base, once the 38 minutes passed, Atkins had Picon dialed on the spot. They managed to beat the attackers, whomever they might me. As Nagala heard Adama's fears, he had the rest of the Spartans shipped to Kobol. Even if they lost the orbit, they would not give up on Kobol without a fight. But now all civvies were moved to Picon, Anders, Baltar and Caprica included, even if she protested and would have rather stayed.

In orbit, Adama was still playing this chess game with Cavil. He taught the Cylons a lesson not long ago. Keep your distance. The Ha'tak's plasma weapons were no joke. Once a few basestars entered weapons fire range, the Ha'tak's machine-gunned one down. But Bill knew this was Cavil testing the waters.

But Bill's fears were about to come to fruition. "Sir, General Atkins is reporting that a large hyperspace wave is approaching."

Dee's report was the confirmation to his fears. The Lucians had found them.

Half a minute later a force of 24 Ha'tak's and four Cheops class ships arrived, with over a hundred Al'kesh flanking them all. The second they arrived, they began launching death gliders.

Cavil stopped his probing once the new arrivals had arrived. This was a three way standoff. At least it seemed so.

"Sir... we have a transmittion in the open. I's in ancient Kobolian."

They planned for this. "Put them on."

"This is Selena, Commander of the Lucian armies under Warlord Masim. You have dared to challenge us and steal from Masim himself. You tried to hide, but in the end that got you nowhere. You have only two choices. Surrender, or die."

Saul, who was next to Bill, was getting a bit paler. "Just as you feared. Bitch got straight to the point, didn't she?"

"Sir, we're begin scanned." Felix alerted everyone. "Not just us, Kobol and Cavil's forces as well."

"Good." Bill was looking at the situation. "Tell Atkins to prep a regular nuke raptor. Just one. And tell the lead Ha'tak Commander to get a target lock on a newly arrived enemy Ha'tak, to transmit to Kobol base."

"Bill... you want to attack the superior force? This is not the time to..."

"This is the best time to do that. Based on her voice, that is an inexperienced officer. And... either this works or we're dead anyway. All I'm waiting for is one last thing..."

On the lead Lucian Ha'tak, Selena had the data on the ships in orbit brought to the main display. Most ships on both sides were primitive. There were the three Ha'tak's Kiva had lost, the damn Earth ship Kiva wanted and what appeared as a cheaply made ship with some outdated Goa'uld parts slapped on it. The base on the planet, while active, was equally outdated. The only threat she saw, numerically speaking, were the strange biological ships. and apparently both sides had exchanged fire. It were those nuclear explosions that had shortened her search quite a bit, once her force detected them.

Her screen flickered a bit. "A cybernetic attack? Who would be stupid enough..." The Goa'uld systems easily repelled the hack attempt, but Selina managed to follow the attempt to the source. She had an evil grin. "Those imbeciles actually dared?" She got a tactical analysis of those ships as well. "Hm, not even worthy of sending one tenth of my forces to deal with them. Perhaps..." She covered her eyes. One of her Ha'tak's had just exploded. She quickly went to the data to figure out what had happened. "Somehow they used an unknown FTL system to bypass the shields? New orders, the fleet is to disperse and begin using evasive maneuvers. So... these upstarts want to play? Fine. Inform Rox to begin his landing. Send five Ha'tak's to engage the enemy forces defending the planet and to screen the troop ships. A quarter of the death gliders and half of the Al'hesh should do as well. Sweep them aside and assault that base. The Stargate must be there. I'll deal with these... whoever they are, myself."

"At once." Her bridge aide responded and forwarded the commands.

"Have my advance forces arrived there yet?"

"Yes, mistress. The officer in charge already transmitted the telemetry of the base."

"Excellent."

Now Cavil saw these new arrivals begin charging him, Bill on the Galactica saw that this ruse had worked. Using Cavil's own traitorous nature against him. Launching his raptors from low orbit to mask their jump and the fact that anyone's sensors would show that until now only Cavil was using nukes... that plus the cyber attack attempt... What conclusion would anyone make?

But Bill knew this was only the beginning of his longest day. But what he didn't know that something was already happening on Kobol.

In the thick forests a few clicks from the base entrance, a group of Colonial rangers was in a good spot. Covered and having the high ground, this was a snipers dream.

"Where's Mena's team? They should have reported in minutes ago?" The spotter asked his three brothers in arms.

"No idea, Corporal... wait..." One of the snipers alerted the others. "Am I seeing things or did that bush move?"

"You're seeing things. Stay sharp and on the lookout. As we just heard things are getting hot in orbit. And..." A precise staff shot into the head ended him.

"Frak..." The others ducked and tried to find out what was happening. "HQ, this is observation unit Beta two. We're under fire, repeat..." A zat discharge silenced him and the other two. Several shots later and they were all dead.

"Beta two, repeat... Hello. Beta two, respond..."

The shrub behind their position began to be pushed aside as one could see footprints in the forest floor appear out of nowhere.

Responding to Guest: STD wasn't bad, it was horrible. 'Bad' doesn't do it justice.

To kalthud: Thank you.

To Reader of Storys: Yes I am sure. It was in the old BSG wiki, before it was taken down, but you can still find it in the way-back machine. But the same poster can be found on Google, if not to the same detail as before. I can clearly see in the barycenter an arrow pointing out of the system and it reads: "To Kobol, ~ 2000 Light years." And in the now removed wiki it was stated that the writers acknowledged that poster as semi cannon. And as I said, I take any semi cannon than no info at all, if the info in it works for me. The 2K Ly is not MY input, it's the Caprica TV show input. And even I thought it was not good as it makes the Final five trip at relativistic speeds more problematic to explain (why I added a small alteration here). So as you can see, even I don't really like the 2000 Ly distance entirely, but it's a number not too big or small, so I kept it. If it were 20000, I'd reject it. If it were 200, I might have used it. If it were 20, no way. If the Final five having no FTL information was not said in the show, the 2000 Ly data would be of no consequences for me, but that small thing changes everything for me.

As to your 1 jump from Kobol to Colonies: I think it specifically only said that Cylon jump drive is better. Again, to keep their writing abilities clear and not constrained. Don't argue with me about this, go to the show writers and Ronald D Moore. Ask them for specifics. We never got them from the show, only inconsistency. Either give me some real cannon (and consistent) facts and links, or I use what I can find. And even if what you say is cannon, it derails my story and makes no sense to me, so I would ignore that cannon fact, which it isn't. Any FTL data we have can only be used from the show itself (which is inconsistent and so unreliable at best). It was never confirmed by a writer, director or actor as to the FTL capabilities, unlike let's say Star Wars or Trek, where we have entire manuals on the stuff (and as I am writing this, this reminds me of a great comparison to our argument here: With all the technical data out there on the Wars hyperdrive, how mad were fans (me included) in The last Jedi when hyperspace ramming was used. It derailed all the other stories by doing that. Why? Cause never mentioned before and even if that was not an issue, if hyperspace ramming was a thing, all the Rebels needed to do to ( in episodes IV - VI) win was ram all the things with a skeleton crew. Oh, there's an Executor, sacrifice a Mon Calamari cruiser. The Executor is 100 times bigger more expensive, so totally worth the ram. In the prequel: Grievous has only droids on his ships, ram all the things and win the war. That BS of one jump has the same effect for the BSG show or this (or any story really) if implemented.) If there is nothing to find, I make stuff up, like every writer here does. If I don't like the data, I tweak it. I took a look at the new wiki and other sources. It was stated: The Cylon FTL is anywhere from x3 to x10 better than Colonial, but part of this is also better Cylon nav system, not just the engine. The engine is better, more fuel efficient and so on, but the Cylon nav system has better range, more accurate and doesn't get distracted by anomalies like radiation, unlike the Colonial one. It was also stated that with Cylon improvement when Sharon was guiding the rescue raptor fleet to Caprica, it took them around 10 jumps to get there. As for Kara jumping from Kobol to Caprica directly, first off it might have been a mistake they later regretted or just didn't care. Second, perhaps they forgot to mention there were more jumps. Third, it is stated the superior nav system is responsible for that, not the engine. If that raider knew the exact distance and location, it might have made the jump. But for me that is a plot hole (and far from the only one) as it derails the entire BSG story. If the toasters COULD do that, as in jump anywhere just like that, they could and would swarm the Galactica and the fleet with 200 basestars in one go and not just the two they always did (since if the pursuers had 2 basestars once they found the fleet, just signal ALL other basestars in existence with raiders and say: Jump here and end the humans. Also don't say: Cavil was playing with them. Even he would at some point have to see that it needs to end and just finish them off. He was evil, not retarded.). Perhaps even jump the colony ship from wherever it was (perhaps Andromeda galaxy if the whole FTL range is now meaningless BS). If that 'jump anywhere' ability was true, why did the Colonials bother with border patrols? Just put all the fleets in orbit of your planets, since jump anywhere and jump to the colonies from anywhere, so patrols basically useless. Why didn't the Cylons in the first or second war just jump in from 'anywhere', nuke the planets and GTFO. The colonies weren't going anywhere. They remained in the same system. If the 'jump anywhere' logic applies, only a permanent mobile home makes sense to prevent any nuking, so colonizing a planet is pointless since there is always a hazard of someone 'jump from anywhere' and nuke you scenario. Do you get it? If you are right, HALF of the things in BSG make no sense. Why use patrols? Why not just swarm the refugee fleet and finish them off? Why even let them escape, if they could easily jump ahead of them? Why not jump the maximum safe distance every jump? Once the war was over, why not let the Colonials jump back to the Colonies or Kobol (if only one jump was needed as you stated)? If I am right and it's a plot hole, only that ONE plot hole is added with smaller issues on top, not half the show ruined! And before you say the Wiki is unreliable: Yeah, but it stated your idea of the one jump. On the other hand it also stated the Galactica had two jump cores, which some say is fan-fiction.

As to the FLT range, I quote the wiki: The range that Galactica can jump at has never been specified on-screen. The Prolmar Sector is said to be "30 light-years away", producer Bradley Thompson suggested that internally, the writers had been working on the idea the Fleet had been jumping about 5 light-years at a time, Bradley Thompson suggested that the final six digits for the jump coordinates Kara interprets from the Music represent distance in SUs. 999,999 SUs - the maximum possible distance that can be inputted - would relate to 15.812 Colonial light-years... so on. You see, even the writers had no rock solid stats. They were all over the place. I say take the Wiki data with a pinch of salt. And unlike with the 2000 Ly info, there is no chart, map, book, poster or anything official from the show or shows linked to it that would say: Here's the data.

I took your input into consideration. I don't agree with it. If you find a script or something where it clearly states that it was 5000 Ly, or 5 Ly or anything but 2000, where there are ROCK solid numbers on jump drives, I'll acknowledge it. Not necessarily alter this story since I'm so far into it, but perhaps use it in a future one. Can we move on now? Cause truth be told, I may not respond to you anymore. This is a fictional story based on another fictional story. The jump drive ranges remain unchanged because it makes more logical sense to me, so I ignore the 'fluke' of the 'jump anywhere BS'. The recharge rate remains unchanged because of the episode 33 and cause it makes sense to me. The Kobol to Cyrannus distance remains unchanged, cause same reasons and it was sated as semi-cannon. If I hadn't found that source, I had made a number up, OK? The jump ranges I made up here remain, cause I like them (all the reasoning I really need here). Ever since I began with this writing, I took people's input in. Adjusted my writing, corrected mistakes and took in or rejected ideas for the story. Sorry if you disagree with me and may be angry I reject your ideas, but that's life. And by the way: I am not the only writer that used the 33 min or 2000 Ly info for the story. Are you like that with them as well? Hey, I even acknowledge that it made more sense for a 304 to be 600 meters long than 225 as that is also somewhat semi cannon, even if the larger size makes more sense for many reasons but I use the original length and won't alter it now as the larger size makes other issues appear. While the SG writers never gave any dimensions for their ships and in some shots two ships may have different sizes than in another shot, increasing confusion.

I said I like 'constructive input'. This stopped being that some time ago. If you don't like the 2000 Ly, the 33 min, the whatever, fine, I'm not forcing you to read this.

Look, at this point I don't care anymore if it was a mistake or the writers forgot on the range of jumps, Kobol, whatever. You won't convince me to use it. The only way you can convince me to make alterations to the facts in this story regarding these distances or recharge rates is this: Tell me how implementing your ideas would benefit this story. How to make it work. How it would impact every chapter so far. How to combine your ideas with the SG universe laws. Do that and if it sounds good and logical to me, I may actually consider it. I have to keep the already written story in my mind to not derail it. You don't have those worries.

And you tend to conveniently forget one thing: This is a crossover. Meaning I have to take the other show into account. So that's why I adapted the BSG info a bit to fit the SG show more. If this was a BSG only story with no crossover, go ahead and argue with me and I might adapt your proposal. Here in this crossover, I stand my ground no matter what you say, cause if I adapt your input, I'd have to alter the entire SG part of this story and you can bet someone would start whining about that! I use the figures I use, cause for consistency (or as much as I can) of this story and cause I like them. And to make BSG FTL actually something that has stats and can be compared to other shows (which it otherwise doesn't have.) If I would use the FTL inconsistency of BSG here, it would even make the Atlantis wormhole drive bad to a degree and if in SG it needs three ZPM's to do a jump, but for some reasons the Colonials and Cylons don't... that creates even more BS, cause you can't say the hyper-advanced Ancients got outsmarted by some rednecks and their toasters. I mean, is it possible? Sure. Anything is. But in such a minimal way that you'd need a microscope to find it. So it's possible, but highly unlikely.

And as a final thing to say about this when it comes to me: In the Man of steel movie the director stated that Krypton was only a few Light years from Earth, which made Zero sense to me as a planet exploding or radio-waves from there would be noticed by Earth. Or a red giant in our neighborhood. The original 1980's in another Galaxy approach is more reasonable to me. That said, when I pointed the distance problem to a Fanfiction writer here who was making a Man of steel / Avengers crossover story, he pointed this fact to me as I was unaware of it to that point. I still don't like it (if I was writing it, I would use the other galaxy approach, cannon data be damned), but am not arguing with him about it, cause guess what: His story!

To sum this long response up: The 2000 Ly distance is not my info, it's the BSG info that I liked and used. The 33 min is some info from the show that is at least a number that makes some sense if later not consistent any longer. So I use it and explained in past chapters with how I fix the 'why raptors can jump faster' issue. Galactica = bus, raptor = bike. Bike faster and better acceleration, bus better overall fuel efficiency for mass and size (and probably range and longevity). So I use the 33 min as a base and made stuff up from there since the show was all over the place. The jump range had no consistency so I made stuff up to give it consistency for this story. No consistency = no story or bad story (just look at the current state of Star Wars. No consistency on top of all other problems). And I use the numbers that I use cause I like them, they make sense and can pair up with the SG universe to explain the LARGE tech gap. I may actually in the future say the jump drives, IF pimped out with Asgard and Ancient tech, can have 2000 Ly jump range. That's my compromise to you. However I make no promises to actually do that. Take it or leave it.

To Guest 2: Yes, an ongoing explosion, but that is beside the point. I don't care why space is moving faster than light, just that it is. I mean when hypernovas create a black hole, gama-ray bursts and a massive shock-wave, the material and particles aren't pushed past light speed either (as far as we know), explosion or not. But if space can, cause of explosions, it means the laws of physics affect space differently.

To Guest 3: Did I say consequence free? I made no such statements. All I said is that only because by our CURRENT physics understanding we can't think of any ways to bypass E=Mc2 practically, doesn't mean someone in the future won't discover something new, whatever that might me. Perhaps E=Mc2 is an incomplete formula, who knows. Because if you had met a person from a hundred years ago, they'd laughed at you for saying: We landed on the moon. As for your magic material condescending remark: We are making new materials right now, as I stated before. All I'm saying is this: We are only at the beginning of this. Who knows what can one day be (if we don't destroy each other by then that is.) In the end this is the same as the science vs. religion argument: One can't disprove god, the other can't prove god. You can't prove that in the future (whenever that might be) someone will not discover some 'magic' material or higher dimensions or something and with that FTL, I can't do the same in the opposite direction. Are we good now?

Guest 4: Identity politics? Really? Where, please point it out. Cause if that BS statement you just made is from me portraying the Sagittarians as religious and traditionalists and Gemeniese as religious nut jobs, well, that ain't me doing it, that was Robert D. Moore. I only use the characters as they were in cannon material and go on from there and add my own OC. Please, again, where do you see identity politics? The only time I tried that was once in the first story (to which I have to get back to soon) and people said they didn't like it, so I removed that section. I think your confusing identity politics with you not liking something. Or say at what point in the story you saw me doing identity politics, so I can check it. How… 'nice' of you to mask the part you didn't like so I couldn't address it directly but have to guess.

Also can people create accounts so I don't respond to 10 guests or at least write a name something other than Guest?

To all who will find the fly in the soup that I gave the Final Five jump drives on their way to find the Colonies, don't bother with:"They never had FTL, it was stated by Anders in season four!" I know! But as we already had so many arguments on the distance vs. time and we all agree it's a plot hole, this is my attempt to at least give some logical conclusion to that hole. Please do not bother me with this OK? Unless you have a better idea that makes SENSE with this story as to patching that plot hole up.

Also, the time it takes me to write a chapter has nothing to do with how large a chapter is. So everyone who said: Make more shorter chapters so we get them sooner! Then you'd get short chapters at the same pace, not long ones. It's my workload, family issues and most importantly, my motivation that are the factors for my writing speed. If I had someone to dictate my stories to and that person would write them while removing the mistakes, you can be sure, I'd be done in a day.

Added after the original post of chapter 16: The idea for the Ra space station came from a fanart. Go to alphacoders, choose art and put Stargate sg-1 search term. In the results should have 35 hits, go to page 2. There it should be instantly obvious what inspired me. Use it to get a visual idea of how it would look. Of course my idea is tweaked.

Captain Jasmine Hostilius - Kristanna Loken