AN: Hi all and hope you have a happy Christmas which is safe under whichever restrictions you may be under due to the virus. Sorry about the delay but I had some writers block on how exactly to go about doing this chapter. I have rough plans for the next few chapters but the detail is lacking. Not sure how quickly I will get out the next chapters but likely not before the new year as I have some energy for my GoT story. Please give that a read if you're interested.
Rebirth of Ares
Overwhelming Force
January 2007
Cylon Space – Near the Twelve Colonies
"We are loosing ground One! We can't maintain the fight with these kind of losses."
"I don't frakking care, we end these organics now!" The argument had gone on for days, over the last few weeks numerous triangular and pyramid ships had appeared within Cylon controlled space and then driven deep into what was previously Colonial space. Even now the enemy was making in-roads to original Cylon space beyond the red line. Their success in defending against the onslaught had received a boost when they tried sending suicide bombers using their jump drives to jump inside the shield bubbles created by the ships of the Empire. Unfortunately whoever commanded the fleet had adapted annoyingly quickly and they soon found that the shields were changed to fit the shape of the hull of the vessel thus preventing the suicide attacks, which had damaged or destroyed half a dozen ships, from repeating.
"Their shields are too strong, it takes five Basestars constantly firing nukes for almost fifteen minutes to drop their shields, by that time they have usually destroyed or crippled those five. Their own fighters are faster and possess superior weapons compared to our Raiders, weapons which can one shot our own. Face it John, we can't beat them."
"No, no, nooo! The line will be drawn here. This far, no further. We are superior to organics, we will not be beaten. Hack their computers, nuke them, whatever it take we will do to survive. Heck, send a biological weapon at them. I want them and all the remaining humans dead, extinct, gone, no more, dust. Understand?!" John yelled at the representatives of the other lines.
"We tried hacking their computers, the firewalls they have are impressive for organics. It has also been difficult trying to figure out their coding which is different from colonial programming and our own which itself is based on colonial. It will take time to breach it and even then it may not work" Three explained.
"Don't care just do it now" John replied.
Our ship building is slow going due to the destruction of one shipyard. Attempts to repair and then use Scorpia shipyards is ongoing but should be ready within the month" Doral informed them.
"A month?!" John exclaimed angrily.
"Our attack on it was… quite effective" Doral admitted.
"God, this is frakking brilliant" One complained. "Get it and any others fixed, we needed ships yesterday." Doral nodded and wrote a note in a notebook he'd brought with him.
"Don't write it down, just go do it!" yelled One. Five (Doral) flinched before jumping to his feet and fleeing the room.
"Four, any chance of some biological weapon we can use?" One said after a breath to relax himself. Simon turned to face him uneasily.
"Not really. The imperial foot soldiers mostly wear fully sealed armour including helmets. Armour that is quite resistant to our ballistic weapons. In fact the only method to beat them so far is to fire nuclear weapons down upon them which is counter-productive since it means that that area is unusable for the foreseeable future."
"Bah that's fine just lure the troops to the planet and blanket it in nuclear fire, we'll purify the planets from the stench of humanity and these aliens" John decreed. Two (Leoben), Three, Four (Simon), Six and Eight (Sharon) shared uneasy glances at the order to send the potentially useful planets into nuclear infernos.
"If we do that One, the planets will be useless to us as well" Four pointed out cautiously. While normally following whatever One said would be the default option, recklessly engulfing the planets in nuclear fire seemed illogical and counter-productive. Costly too. "You assume too that any of our ships will be in orbit of these worlds and able to fire our missiles on the planet below" Simon added. One waved it off dismissively.
"If Five can get our ship production rates up we will have ships to spare, might as well use them to blanket these Imperials in a nuclear bloodbath. One I will be happy to watch. Now unless you lot have anything more to say get back to work. We have a war to win and I won't have those frakking humans or aliens winning any more." With that said he glared at them before then storming out of the room in an angry huff.
"One seems to be becoming more and more unstable and obsessive" Three said cautiously before looking stronger at the affirmative nods from the other models.
"Others of his line have been acting similarly according to my fellow Sixes" Six commented in agreement.
"Do you think his line is deteriorating as this war progresses?" Simon asked worriedly.
"Perhaps we should temporarily box his line so we can check his coding?" Eight suggested timidly. The others looked at Eight in surprise and she shrank back a little under the looks.
"It is not an unintelligent suggestion" Six started slowly, glancing at the others to find agreement. "Perhaps we should box that idea for now unless One does something… drastic." The others nodded. If One indeed was deteriorating then they'd need to act swiftly before they got affected too.
"Indeed, my line might be able to check on his coding during the download procedure when it occurs for his line. That may give us a clue as to whether or not anything is occurring with One" Simon suggested.
"Do it, for now we carry on as normal and we do not mention this to anyone" Three said decisively and the others nodded in agreement before leaving the meeting room.
Achilles
James prowled through the ship to the Pel'tac to find Honeric commanding there. "What do we have?" James said, announcing his presence to the Jaffa present. They all turned and bowed to him before returning to their duties.
"My lord, our probes have located a small fleet of five Basestars on an outgoing course towards the Colonials. Also present appears to be one of the Resurrection ships courtesy of the intel from the Colonials."
"Seems their donation of Cylon ship types has proven useful. Dispatch two Destroyers and five Ha'tak to destroy them. Ground forces dealing with the dug-in Cylon forces well?"
"New Caprica has been liberated though there was limited resistance. It was mostly abandoned. We are now sending probes deeper into the Twelve Colonies, it should reveal further enemy deployments. Our armour protects from Cylon ballistic weapons, they are much like Tau'ri weapons although there appears to be exploding bullets as well as anti-armour ones. Both had limited affect on our armour" Honeric reported. James nodded in acceptance.
"The colonials proceeding towards their new home?"
"Slowly my lord. After much debate in their Quorum they selected the world nearest Earth, I believe they felt they should be near a human world since it would give them a future trade partner and potential ally. Estimated time of arrival is around a month due to their jump drive and distance they need to cover."
"Good, keep an eye on them but let them go. We will secure our western borders from this Cylon menace and then proceed to return to the monitoring of the Free Jaffa Nation."
"And the Tau'ri my lord?"
"Shall be left mostly alone. Their ships remain in the Tau'ri home system, leaving only to visit their off world bases. We can allow that as it does not interfere with the Empire. Their focus has also shifted in terms of military deployment to another galaxy, they are preparing for what lies there, something I do not envy them for doing. Right then, lets finish this little war and be done with this sector."
"My lord" he said with a bow before turning to the other bridge crew. "Inform the fleet to move out and assume attack formation. Target my lord?"
"Set a course for Caprica, best speed."
"As you command my lord, so now it will end."
"No, now it begins" James corrected with a vicious smirk. Out in space a fleet of over twenty starships hummed with power as their hyperdrives charged and then launched them to war. Across the western border of the Empire smaller squadrons of around ten ships launched themselves into hyperspace heading for various target across Cylon space.
Beams of light shot across space before slamming into thin metal lining before entering the main organic based hull below, creating deep gauges across the ship, the points around them going red hot and molten. It was repeated on many vessels in the orbit above the Earth-like planet as Raiders and Gliders wove in and out while firing bullets, missiles and plasma at each other. Ships exchanged missile or torpedo barrages and rocked from their impacts, the shields of the Ha'tak and Star Destroyer vessels flaring while the Cylon Baseships suffered greater damage with their arms breaking off from the 'Y' shaped upper or lower sections.
Chaos reigned supreme as the large command ship of Ares surged towards the centre of the Cylon formation where three Baseships hung back after receiving only light damage so far. The Cylon ships fired off dozens of missiles towards the Shu'tak class mothership but it ploughed straight into them and then shrugged them off like a fly hitting a windscreen. "Lock beam weapons on their main reactors, you may fire when ready" James commanded from his throne. Seconds later several orange beams shot out from the vessel, which shuddered slightly from the high energy output, and smashed into the hulls of the three nearby Cylon ships. "Bring us around bearing 304 by 219 and prepare to broadside… Fire!" Another salvo of beams were spat out by the giant command ship at the enemy vessels which obliterated or vaporised large sections of the Baseships. One, upon loosing power and being crippled greatly, began to loose its orbital position and slowly started to plummet to the surface below.
Within fifteen minutes the entire squadron of Baseships and a single Resurrection ship were destroyed or rendered inoperable by crippling strikes to power reactors, weapons or engines. Caprica orbit had been secured.
"Deploy the fleet to secure the other world in binary orbit with Caprica, request additional forces to assist and begin sending down Al'Kesh and gliders to target Cylon defences and facilities. Lets get this done quickly people" Ares commanded from his throne as he looked over his ship's sensor readings. Ten of the twenty-one ships broke off and headed for Gemenon as it was only a few minutes away at sublight. Meanwhile the remaining ten began deploying fighters and bombers along with troop transport to begin the ground assault on the former capital of the twelve Colonies. Across the four star systems that made up the Twelve Colonies similar large battle groups invaded the principle planet of each system while chasing off or destroying and Cylon space elements. The Cylons were beaten back at every turn due to the energy shields and plasma weapons that the Imperial forces possessed, dealing a crippling blow to Cylon morale and military strength. What had been enough to defeat a paralysed Colonial fleet was massacred by the advance weapons and capabilities of the Ha'taks and Star Destroyers.
"Frak, they're everywhere in the colonies!" John exclaimed, hours after the first report of Imperial attacks arrived.
"One we need to pull back before we loose all our ships" Six recommended.
"I agree, we can defend our borders and the defend the Resurrection Hub" Three added.
"No we regroup and attack them en mass. We'll use our numbers against them."
"They have energy shields One! How the frak are we meant to beat that?" Carpica Six argued back.
"Any chance of hacking them?" John asked hopefully.
"We've tried that hundreds of times, it doesn't work against their computer firewalls" Leoben said tiredly. John slammed his hand against a console.
"Then what the frak are we suppose to do? I will not be beaten by a bunch of organics" One complained angrily.
"Excuse me, but aren't you mostly organic now yourselves?" a lone cultured voice spoke up from a corner of the room. "You Cylons have developed down that path for whatever reason so perhaps lay off the, er, racism?" Gaius Baltar finished weakly at the hateful glare One levelled at him.
"And what in god's name is he still doing here Six?" John again complained, looking at Caprica Six while waving his hand in exasperation at Baltar.
"We haven't had a chance to return him to the Colonials, not that you'd want us to, plus he has some use in regards to these Imperials. He can think like them more easily than we can." John huffed and glared again at Baltar but nodded in acceptance.
"Fine. Four, any chance of a biological weapon we can use?
"Negative. Their armour protects them from weapons fire and common forms or radiation and low yields. As for gasses and biological weapons it appears the helmets and suit filter the air breathed preventing such options. At least as far as we can tell" Simon informed them.
"Frak frak frak. Are none of you any use? Five, have you done anything about our ship production?"
"Ah, well, about that. It seems that with the simultaneous assault on the colonial worlds the Scorpia shipyard has suffered a direct attack as the primary target within Helios Gamma system. The smaller Picon shipyard has only taken probing attacks while Caprica and Gemenon are invaded in the Helios Alpha system. In short all ship construction within the Colonies is now at a halt, not that it begun as I only had a few days since you ordered me to do anything about it" Five answered sadly.
"You idiots, you frakking idiots!" John yelled causing the others the flinch slightly. "Can none of you fight or organise a war properly?"
"There wasn't much we could do One" Three started.
"I don't care" John interrupted. "Five get back to work building more ships, I don't care how you do it but do it. Three and Six go back and command our ships to stand and fight, nuke the planets if you have to, I wont allow those fraking humans or Imps to have my worlds. If I can't have them then no one can." With that said he stormed out of the conference room. The remaining models shared an uneasy glance. Five sighed in a put upon away and slowly walked out, trying to figure how to build more ships with less resources.
"That went well" Caprica said dryly.
"Oh definitely Six, well said" Baltar replied snarkily.
"Well I don't hear you giving any good ideas Baltar" Three retorted heatedly.
"Well I'm sorry I said anything then, but you are being soundly trounced by this new race so you might want to think of some better strategy than just throwing yourselves at them. Perhaps negotiate terms?"
"Surrender and allow ourselves to be butchered like the colonials tried back in the war? No way" Three exclaimed in horror.
"No I mean negotiate a new treaty. You don't have the history with them that you do with the colonials and they have fled, off to the gods know where, so why not pull out of the colonies and go a different direction away from the Colonials and make peace with the Empire. It can keep the peace between us making the Twelve Colonies a neutral space between us and the remaining humans" Gaius proposed. The other models looked on thoughtfully though Three and Four were unsure while Eight seemed nervous.
"It could work" Carpica said slowly, not quite agreeing but seeing a gem of an idea.
"One would never buy it" Leoben pointed out with a disappointed shake of his head.
"The Empire might not buy it either" Three added sadly.
"Terms would be negotiated so they might" Baltar explained.
"And what of One?"
"Simon, have you found any problems with his line?" The model in question looked uncertain and hesitated slightly before replying.
"There is something that is different with One than us. His memory files are far more extensive than ours and there might, I say might, be something in his personality matrix which is glitching, possibly due to some code that was not implemented properly or that time has corrupted. It may be affecting his obsessiveness in regards to our war on the humans as well as his, er, anger issues."
"In short would you recommend boxing his line so it can be fully analysed?" Six asked having taken charge of this sub-meeting. Simon looked thoughtful for a few minutes, making the other nervous, before he then slowly nodded.
"If it were any other line he would argue the same" he eventually replied with a tired sigh.
"Then perhaps we should box him then before he does something that ruins us all?" Caprica slowly proposed. The other models glanced at each other before nodding in agreement. Some hesitantly while some were more certain. "Very well, Four go to the Hub and send the command for a halt to any One resurrections. We can shoot the remaining Ones as we go and secure the fleet. We go once we have a signal from the hub to confirm boxing. Hopefully we move quickly enough that One can't respond" she commanded and the others nodded, heading off to issues orders to their own lines.
On a distant world within the Milky Way galaxy a lone ring stood tall against the dusty winds of the savannah-like world. A group of humans lived only a thirty minute walk from the gate, in isolation from the rest of the galaxy. They had long since been abandoned by the Goa'uld and the humans of Earth had not yet dialled their gate. It was a quiet and peaceful settlement in a late classical era period based on Persian culture. An agricultural society with decent ironworking and the beginnings of the usage of steel.
The relative quiet was disturbed by the gate suddenly spinning and coming to life with the orange crystals slowly lighting up as someone dialled in. The vortex formed with a great whoosh and the well known puddle of water soon snapped into place, gently rippling as it stood there. Nothing more happened for a few seconds or so until a dusty grey robed humanoid figure stepped through the gate carrying a staff and a leather bound book in either hand. His face was mostly hidden by the grey hood but what little could be seen indicated pale skin. The man breathed in deeply before smiling slightly. His words carrying slightly on the gentle breeze. "Hallowed are the Ori."
