Record keeping time:Not much to say but that I am still working on this and other things. I am praying for our world as well as our families. It's not just the virus.
Now as per usual, this chapter and the next will be talk. The Colonials are changing fast, but you cannot show change of this magnitude without grief from the politicians. Remember that all of this is happening within three weeks. The Asgard visitation was within the two-week span of these chapters. Talk about culture shock! This and the next chapter will deal with the ramifications of all of the crap that is going down. So, my usual WARNING! This is a talky, information chapter-all Colonial. These two upcoming chapters will establish Colonial civilization for a generation. They are beginning to see in their hearts that they are not alone anymore. It takes a while for the mind to catch up with the heart…
And it is frightening.
Please enjoy. May the Lord bless ya.
P.S Don't forget to read some of Ordinaryguy2's latest chapters. He's been on a role.
Now please
WorldWar: Establishing the Balance
Chapter 28
Cyrannus Start System: Planet Caprica
Undersecretary Randersan continued his briefing. "From our examinations of this species, its genders are comparable to ours. At a glance, many of us would find it difficult to distinguish male from female. This species has a strict, very militaristic-based society. Said society appears to be caste-based with clear delineations of position in their civilization. Our data miners are still analyzing elements of their culture as we learn more of their languages and its nuances.
"Their language is a blend of verbal speech and machine language, not unlike what we assume the Cylons developed as they developed into what we understand them to be now.
"What we know is that they were in a very long war with the Wraith and they either lost that war or were pushed back. We theorize that desperation forced their society to explore cylonetics as a viable alternate in their battle for survival.
"Excuse me, Mister Undersecretary, what does the term cylonetics mean?" The quorum representative from Aileron had never heard of the term before. Being a new term, most of the people in the room weren't familiar with the word.
"It's a new term used to define and describe the science of integrating, or combining if you will, biological and artificial system in a living organism, allowing them to work harmoniously as a single, compatible system."
Priestess Livia Stomata stood up, furious. "That is an abomination!" the priestess yelled.
"I am not disagreeing, my Priestess, but that is the definition. The Cylons were masters of this science. Their advances in cylonetics allowed them to create clones using synthetic or cylonetic implants that helped improve their viability and other physical attributes such as better resistance to diseases and malignancies."
The aged priestess turned pale. "Surely we are not following those abominations down that path!"
"No, my Priestess, but we are seeking to understand how they did it so we may prevent such abominations from happening again. But to argue the point, there are those that argue that the ability to use artificial organs in patients would save lives and improve the overall quality of life."
"Using their technology, no matter the reason is an abomination. We will never risk our people becoming like them."
"My priestess," placated Randersan, tying to keep the ire of the woman at manageable levels. "There are some who would disagree that this is an all-or-nothing issue. Humans having cylonetics does not make them cylons. We already have medical techniques that involve organ transplants and making prosthetics. Wouldn't the science of cylonetics help the critically ill and improve the overall quality of life for those that our current medical knowledge is incapable of doing?"
Livia's fury just increased. "The gods will curse us and anyone who would dare desecrate their bodies in such ways!"
"Priestess Stomata, Mister Undersecretary, we are straying off course," Interrupted President Goesel, cutting off the growing argument before it could gain traction. "There will be time for that discussion at a later date. Please continue."
"Yes, sir."
"This is not over!"
"No, it isn't. It's just delayed," Goesel told his hostile looking aunt.
"So, they turned themselves into cylons," said the Secretary of State Duhnmer interrupted. "They had to be very desperate to even contemplate converting their race into half machines."
The men and women in the room shifted uneasily in their seats. Clearly, this species had to be desperate to turn themselves into automations. However, Randersan's next words countered these assumptions.
"From what little we could decipher; their war was devastating although we can see evidence that these people were moving towards cylonetics for a long time. I emphasize that these are aliens, not humans. We know little about their history so we're not in a position to make judgements."
"They should all be destroyed!" Livia hissed.
"Yes, we should," he told her. turning back to the others, he continued. "What we do know is that they are very aggressive and will strike at anyone appears weaker than they. We have some theories why," he said. "We will elaborate on this at a later time."
"Their computer records show that they have no respect for cultures other than their own. Societies are attacked and subdued with ruthless efficiency. The survivors are converted into what we are referring to as drones and what we believe are warrior drones used to supplement their primary forces."
"You mentioned the Wraith before," Lead Admiral Cain said. "Did the alien computers have their points of origin or did they have descriptions of their capabilities?"
"We have not found that data yet, Lead Admiral. We are having difficulty translating the unprotected data we've found. We are still attempting to break the encryption coding, which I am sorry to say is far beyond us. It may take us years to break because of the limits of our current computron technology. So, we are focusing on the aliens themselves. If we can understand the alien implants, that may help us to break the encryption blocks sooner.
"Onboard the remains of the ship that attacked the Junis, now designated Ship Zero, are numerous examples of these drones, mostly human or humanoid in origin. Unlike the primaries, the drones or secondaries had undergone massive surgical procedures. Parts of the brain was removed and replaced with cylonetic systems were resected, and the now empty spaces made room for additional implants. The implants serve a variety of functions, most of which our researchers are still in the process of evaluating.
"We theorize that several of these implants are power sources and programming modules used to help improve specific, predetermined functions. Our examiners believe that since the reproductive organs are removed, the extra space is a convenient area to place the devices without interfering with other vital organs.
"From the autopsies performed on the primaries, we see that these more radical operations were not performed. It appears that all primary brain matter was retained and cylonetic modules were added to enhance their overall strength, mental acuity, and communications and unidentified military applications. Many of these implants were found inside and outside of their craniums."
"The primaries retained their reproductive organs, but there are far more numerous implants found throughout their entire bodies. I will add that these implants are of much higher quality when compared to what we found in the drones.
"Again, As I have stated earlier, it appears that the primaries are independent of each other, but have a singular purpose and can share data, as necessary. The drones do not retain any independence of their own and are entirely dependent on the primaries or the main computron-computer systems to function and perform their duties.
"The primaries have little regard for any other species other than our own. Data strongly suggests that the secondaries do most of the grunt work such as janitorial, ship maintenance, and over all technical support. These two groups have little interaction between them, other than for the primaries to issue orders to the secondaries, or to assist the primaries in performing certain jobs and responsibilities."
"Undersecretary Randersan, you mentioned this species is very computer dependent. Were the computers on Ship Zero being used to control the primaries and, or secondaries?" President Goesel asked.
"As far as we can tell, the answer is yes and no. The primaries are wirelessly connected to their computer systems and there's little doubt that the ship computers augment their cylonetics, but their functionality isn't crippled by the lack of their ship computers. This capability is also a potential threat to our own systems if they can access them. We need redesigned our firewalls to combat this potential threat. The secondaries do not have this capability. They function differently.
"The secondaries are dependent of the mainframes, but the primaries can control the secondaries when necessary acting as portable mainframe. The secondaries are little more than dumb terminals."
Everyone took a moment to digest what they'd just heard. Many of those in the room listening were disgusted, and an undercurrent of fear that ran through the room was palpable. The memories of the cylons and the war was still weighing on many Colonials. Xenophobia was already an increasing problem among some of the Kobollians.
The idea of fighting another kind of cylon menace, an even more aggressive one, would spread more panic across the Colonies.
The new aliens could push many people over the edge. The very idea of half machine aliens attacking the Kobollians and turning survivors into mindless puppets was nightmarish.
Admiral Nagala raised a finger to pause the lecture to add a couple of points. The president nodded.
"Designate Ship Zero exited the STD, discovered the presence of the Junis, and attacked without any attempt at communication. The hull of the Junis was damaged, using what was initially believed to be a cutting laser. We now know that the weapon used was plasma-based. It went through meters of armored hull like a knife through butter, which is further evidence that the enemy was more interested in keeping the Junis intact and discovering its planet of origin. With our intelligence reports gained from the Terrans, we now believe that this attack is a prelude to future invasion. In hindsight, we were fortunate to discover them when we did."
The undersecretary continued. "The entire ship was used as a breeching pod, ramming the Junis to gain physical access to our battlestar. This action turned out to be a critical mistake on their part. They were more than capable of destroying both battlestars in a straight fight, so we surmise they wanted to acquire detailed information on us and our species. As Admiral Nagala alluded to, these aliens will attack when they find us.
"When they forced access to the port-side of the Junis, their own ship sustained damage. They weren't able to maintain their protective energy shield, allowing our sister battlestar to pound the exposed enemy's flanks. Without its shields, we were able to cripple it. That presented a new problem.
"Once inside the Junis, crew fought back as the primaries and secondaries warrior drones overran several sections of the ship in the initial fighting. Once the Colonial marines engaged the enemy, then the crew began mounting a significant defense. As you can see in the videos, we got from the internal cameras of the Junis, the aliens were overconfident having vastly superior firepower and body armor that we couldn't match.
"I stress that we have samples of these weapons and body armor. R&D is hard at work attempting to understand and back-engineer them for use by our own forces. As you can observe, their armor protected them against our crew's weapons using anti-cylon armor-piercing rounds.
"A minimum of two full clips of anti-cylon rounds were required to bring down one primary. The primaries resisted direct hits from standard rounds, requiring five to eight clips to bring them down. Anything less didn't produce a noticeable decrease in their effectiveness.
"The secondaries were less robust, being killed with six to eight armor-piercing rounds, or only a single magazine clip of standard rounds. These aliens are tough, make no mistake. What was in our favor was the fact that they were only relatively few numbers of primaries compared to the secondaries. Nevertheless, we lost a lot of good men and women. If it weren't for the support and reinforcements from the Tycheon, the Junis would have been lost. Instead, the combined Colonial forces were able to infiltrate and take control of their ship. Their actions that allowed us to gather intelligence and equipment. The videos that we are observing now are views of the interior of the alien vessel taken by members of our crew.
"You will notice that once our forces obtained access to Ship Zero, they immediately encountered secondaries. These secondaries were not warrior drones. Some of our marines opened fire and killed several drones before they saw that these were not a threat. Better safe than sorry. These worker drones completely ignored our marines while continuing to perform their duties even while being shot.
"Their ship was damaged beyond repair but notice that the drones had any inclination to abandon ship or attempt to initiate repairs. With the primaries not being available to issue orders, they were essentially blank slates. Junis was amazed that they didn't leave anyone there to issue orders. This lack of backup, if true, represents a very critical weakness in their command structure."
The people in the room looked thoughtful. If true, the implications of what was just said was immense.
"We don't know what the primaries' population is. If the population is small, it suggests a reason why they require so many secondaries. The ratio was nine to one on Ship Zero. It could be that their population may be minimal, or the secondaries are nothing but easily disposable assets. We don't yet know."
"The interior of the ship was horrifying. We've edited some of the video for reasons that will become obvious. There were injured, wounded, and dead secondaries spewed all over the decks. Their fellow drones ignored them as they continued their own duties. There was one secondary tasked with the removal of the bodies. Those pitiful creatures simply shoved the dead into a storage locker. When it completed its gruesome task, it stopped moving as it awaited orders. Others were seen in various states of repair. Limbs were seen on tables as well as sets of eyes.
"Some scenes of open cranial were so disturbing we deleted them from this presentation."
"How can these aliens operate under such deplorable conditions?" Nagala asked.
"These conditions might be the result of the ship's command and computer systems suffering extensive damage. The primaries could have simply attacked the Junis, assuming that they would win and then clean up later. The Cylons worked like a well-oiled machine. There is no reason to assume that these aliens are any different. With the primaries busy, and the computers down, conditions on the ship would degenerate very quickly. But again, this is only speculation.
"Why these aliens attacked without having backup is unclear, but we are not going to look a gift horse in the mouth. It saved the battlestars from further attacks. The time we gained allowed our forces to repair their ship and jump away with samples and without further incident."
"It's like fighting cylons, but worse," Cain grumbled.
"Yes," the undersecretary agreed as the first videos were paused, and lights brightened again. "This species is extraordinarily dangerous. Unlike cylons, these aliens are more independent-minded than initial evidence would seem to suggest.
"There are similarities to the cylons; however, the evidence suggest that these were fully organic beings that chose to turn themselves into half-machines," Randersan continued. "This evolutionary march towards becoming part machine was not happenstance or desperation of people trying to survive. This is a mature science. These people were moving in this direction for a long time."
"Thank you, Mister under-secretary," President Goesel said. The man looked weary as the weight of the worlds was on top of his shoulders. The others in the room didn't look or feel any better. The amount of information, although sparse, was nearly overwhelming, and it wasn't over yet. When the session was over, the government was going to go into overdrive.
"Once we discovered that there was life out there, we didn't want a repeat of the Terran debacle. There are powerful forces we are not prepared to deal with or counter if they prove hostile. The Terrans, the Tollanians, the Goa'uld and the Race were hard lessons," Goesel admitted. "One that we are still adjusting to." The man would have sighed in any other meeting, but he maintained his control. Now wasn't the time to show weakness, for all of their sakes. "I don't have to tell anyone in this room what would have happened if the Ashtorath had found us as little as fifteen years ago. After the Terran conflict, I consulted with President Adar and discussed developing of First Contact protocols from lessons learned. Those plans were abandoned when I became president and we discovered the Race. We still believed that we were probably the most powerful military force in the galaxy bar the Terrans. We are now dissuaded of that notion.
"I've begun revisiting those FC protocols along with other recommendations that will be submitted upon completion. Too many races know our worlds' locations and our capabilities. This weakness wasn't a concern when our only enemy was the cylons. No one else knew our locations because there was no one else.
"These new protocols address world security and our responses to unknown contacts, whether hostile or benign. First Contact protocols are being devised, and evaluated, when they are vetted by the CDI, the protocols will be implemented throughout our military forces."
President Goesel motioned to Admiral Nagala.
The admiral cleared his throat and began.
"Following the aftermath of what is now referred to as the Junis Incident, Commander Eddlison took the initiative and remained in the sector to recon. In his report, he stated his belief that these unknowns were a clear and present danger that necessitated further covert evaluation. In light of the current data, we acknowledge that his decision was the correct one. The Junis remained behind while the Battlestar Tycheon and the rest of the fleet retreated from the sector. That information was covered earlier.
"What we didn't know at the time was that the primaries had tracking units implanted withing their cranial plates. The tracking devices activated when the Junis approached one of their captive worlds. These trackers activated in the retreating squadron as well but were quickly discovered and removed. The subspace signal is unique, and the Tycheon was easily able to find and inactivate the devices located in the liberated technology taken from Zero One unlike the Junis.
"Because of the incursion, the Janis crew initiated a full search of their entire ship looking for the trackers or undetected alien artifacts left by the aliens. Once activated, those implants had the Junis constantly evading the enemy for several days until they found and neutralized them. The signals were intermittent and because of the huge amount of alien tech onboard, it took them some time to find, identify and remove those trackers. If it weren't for the subspace communication technology liberated from the Cylons, the Junis and the Tycheon would have never found the signal devices or when the devices originated from.
"The supply outpost was destroyed to deny the aliens from finding any intelligence about us. To keep the Junis supplied, four fuel and food storage tanks were hidden at a secured location. The Junis then continued its exploration of the four nearest star systems adjacent to the STD."
"They extracted as much as they could from the remains of Ship Zero. Several nuclear devices were placed on what was left. Once destroyed, our vessels initiated two jumps and proceeded to make additional repairs for the return home. The squadron began their journey to the Colonies, leaving the Junis to continue its mission.
"It took a week for the Junis to complete repairs. The crew used that time to make preliminary evaluations of the equipment, and alien bodies.
"The Junis jumped to the outer edges of the next closest star system to the STD. It was decided that returning to the star system where the STD was located was ill-advised," the admiral told them with a knowing grimace. "Using their stealth raptors, they carefully surveyed system, and this was what they found."
TBC