AN: Sorry for the delay, hope you enjoy this slightly shorter chapter.

Rebirth of Ares

War and Peace

March 2007

A galaxy far far away…

The group of humans moved slowly through the gloomy purple and brown organic corridors. They were dressed in green military uniforms with a reddish-brown trim. A few wore hats but all carried rifles, silver metal in colour. A mix of shotgun style weapons and a few semi-automatics. The group moved slowly, ducking into alcoves or through doors and around corners whenever a guard patrol wondered their way. Slowly but surely they made their way deeper into the facility. A man with a slightly chubby face and curly hair led he group while holding a pistol and an alien device of some description. The three other men and one red-headed young woman followed quietly behind knowing that any loud noise could set of the alarms.

The group soon came to a sealed organic door, a control panel was dimly lit on the left hand side. "This is it, but the ship plans I memorised did not include details on how to operate the door" the leader commented after looking over the door. One of the men grunted.

"If we try to blow this Cowen the whole hive will know."

"Maybe I can find something in the wall by the controls?" suggested a slim man with messy hair in his early thirties. The second man arched an eyebrow in reply but nodded.

"It is what we brought Ladon here for Cowen."

"Alright Kolya" Cowen nodded and Ladon stepped up and cut into the wall with the controls. After twenty minutes of messing with the controls from inside the wall he eventually got it to open. He and Cowen rush inside while Koyla and the young woman stood guard. Another twenty minutes went passed before Cowen and Ladon returned, both grinning with a memory drive in Cowen's hands. "We got it, now we can strike at all the hives."

"What about this one?" Koyla asked as the group began heading back out the way they came.

"We could use a test sir" Ladon suggested. "While we know the bomb works it would be useful to see how affective it is against a whole hive ship at its current yield." Cowen hummed thoughtfully.

"We have one with us?"

"I had a squad prep one and bring it with us in case you wanted to try it."

"Good, good, alright we'll try it but I want it over quickly, we can't risk the Wraith awakening galaxy wide. We are lucky there seems to be few guards around as the Wraith are nearly all asleep. Tell the squad to hurry though." There were nods of acknowledgement and the group made their way out while another group placed the bomb inside the hive and activated it with a countdown. Once everyone was clear they all began to run for the ring of the ancestors. They turned and looked back after putting some distance between them. There, a short distance away, they saw a large explosion erupt from within the hive ship in the shape of a mushroom. Secondary explosions rippled down the ship as conduits exploded and additional explosions were let off. The shockwave knocked them off their feet and the roar was deafening even at the distance they were. When they finally got to their feet and the smoke had cleared, all that was left was a smouldering wreck of a hive. It wasn't going to be going anywhere in future. They cheered at the sight of their most hated enemy torn asunder and burned to a crisp. "For the Genii!" Cowen yelled.

"For the Genii! For the Genii! For the Genii!" came the cries of the soldiers while Koyla gave him respectful a nod. Ladon was busy scribbling down notes for later reference.


A few days later

Atlantis

Helia had grown more comfortable over the last year and a half. Atlantis had become home again having not quite lost that feeling since she'd left for Earth. True, she like many ship commanders and crews had mostly stayed aboard their ships, but Atlantis had always been home. The humans, a primitive hunter gather race, or at least had been at the time of her attempt to return to Earth, had in fact advanced far in the centuries since Atlantis' submersion. They had built their own ships, the Daedalus proving to be quite an effective vessel despite, compared to the Tria, being a more primitive ship. She did admire their ability to punch above where they should be. She supposed it was their tenacity, strong will and long experience of war which gave them such. That a civilian, a diplomat in fact, was in charge of their expedition to Atlantis and thus her nominal superior, said much about what they hoped for but that they were ready for anything. Indeed looking over what they brought with them when they first came to Atlantis it was clear they knew the danger the Wraith posed. That they kept to Atlantis and dug in, readying for the eventual awakening rather than going forth and accidentally waking the Wraith, meant that the leaders had good heads on their shoulders. They were people she could work with.

Mostly her duties had been instructing the humans on Ancient systems, how to repair them but also just using them. As well she and captain Dimus had been briefing Dr Weir and Colonel Sumner on the Pegasus galaxy, as the humans called it. Weir was a kind but astute woman who while trained as a diplomat had done well so far with running the city as its de-facto mayor or governor. Sumner was the military leader and Helia felt that he was a hard man but a good one, by the book and hard on his men though well meaning, much like her she guessed. She was tough but fair to her crew and she'd admit that she was hard to please. Dimus however was more relaxed with his crew than her but a good commander, one of the best given the secret assignment the Aurora had been sent on. Dimus was more like Major Sheppard in that sense, both looking after their people and having a more relaxed feel before turning professional in a blank of an eye. She supposed it came down, in Dimus' case, to having spent years being 'awake' in that virtual reality that things had slackened off. Sheppard meanwhile, she felt he played up the laxness and casualness in order to lure people into a false sense of security. She'd seen him shoot and operate in a few war games they and the humans had run on Atlantis and he was much better than she'd expected. Added to that he had the gene. Somewhere he was descended from a friend, a colleague or some fellow Lantean, and he could use the control chair like an expert, or at least near enough given the lack of training. That had bonded the two, she enjoyed his company and both could talk military stuff, comparing noes on battles and the like before switching off and just talking. That he was easy on the eyes and had the gene didn't hurt either she guessed. Using the chair and other tech was one of the few things they'd gone over with the humans. They'd given all those who had the gene training on both the gateships, or puddle jumpers as Sheppard annoyingly called them, and the control chair. Admittedly only Sheppard and their doctor, a Carson Becket, showed any true ability with it. Apparently a general back on Earth was said to be equal or superior to Sheppard in ability to use the chair.

She had just walked into the control centre when an alarm went off softly from one of the consoles. The control tower crew was a mix of Lanteans and humans who could understand and use the controls. Usually one, a man called Chuck, was by the gate controls while another, a woman called Amelia Banks who was a recent transfer on the last supply run by the Daedalus, stood by the sensors. In charge of them and working in conjunction with Ava, the lead Lantean technician in the control room, was a human called Peter Grodin. As she approached Amelia called out to her. "Ma'am sensors are detecting something at the edge of their range" she reported. Helia took a moment to recall that the range covered about a third of the galaxy.

"I see, what is it? If it's unclear perhaps remodulate sensors to the upper and lower subspace bands in turn, this will boost their range in those frequencies thus giving us a clearer picture." The human woman frowned briefly before widening her eyes in understanding before then fiddling with the controls. Barely thirty seconds later she was focused on Helia again.

"Ma'am, it seems to be a number of hive ships. They're moving about on different headings. None seem to making for Atlantis though" she reported and Helia gave her points for covering the most relevant news.

"How many?"

"Difficult to say but perhaps twenty or so?" Helia hummed thoughtfully.

"Patch us into the satellite network, that is ready isn't it?"

"I believe the Aurora is deploying the last few now" Grodin informed them, already bringing up the relay network onto his computer screen. "Yes, you see there, this 15% of the galaxy isn't covered yet" he added pointing at the map on his display. Indeed a small segment was blank but it was the furthest point from Atlantis so it didn't matter too much just yet. "Transferring the feeds from the other satellites now and adding them to sensors." The sensor screen soon changed to fill out more details. Included amongst them were a hundred red dots which rapidly began to increase to thousands, spanning across the galaxy. From what they could tell, nearly all were moving or showing activity in some way. Helia and the other Lanteans in the room paled slightly and even the humans seemed to know something wasn't good.

"Helia to Doctor Weir and Colonel Sumner, please report to the control room immediately. I repeat Doctor Weir and Colonel Sumner please come to the control room immediately" she spoke over the PA system. She looked at the others once she was finished, trying to calm herself but knowing deep down a bit of her was terrified. "It seems our fears have been realised, the Wraith have awoken."


Milky Way Galaxy

Cylon Front

Blissfully unaware to the troubles that were soon going to face the Atlantis expedition and the surviving Ancients, James, A.K.A. Ares, was continuing his campaign against the rogue robots. Much of the territory formerly making up the Twelve Colonies had now fallen into his hands. While only a few were having land invasions due to the nuclear radiation, orbital supremacy was now his around all that had been taken. The Cylons, under the increasing pressure from the technologically advanced and shielded vessels, had retreated back beyond the Armistice Line, the original territory they had held after the first war.

"Status of the colonies?" Ares asked from his throne aboard his flagship.

"Scans indicate most are uninhabitable for long term residence. The radiation level will die down in fifty to a hundred years by our estimates. Only the worlds called Gemenon and Aquaria seem to be relatively unscathed for long term habitation" came the report from the Jaffa manning the sensor station. James nodded slowly. The colonies had indeed taken quite the hit a few years ago.

"Any human survivors?"

"Limited life signs from remote areas. There are also a few in the relatively intact remaining cities."

"Have them rounded up, we will transport them to the colonials new world. They are unlikely to last longer if they remain. It also gains us trust and points with the colonial government. Useful for later."

"By your command my lord." He would rescue the remaining humans and earn further good will from the colonials. It would allow for the systems to act as a buffer between the colonials and the Cylons, assuming they surrender.

"Break orbit and set course for this Armistice line, bring what ships we can, it's time we end this little war." Orders acknowledged, he felt the ship hum slightly as he leaned back in his throne and the Achilles surged forward leaving Caprica behind before leaping into hyperspace.


Beyond the Armistice Line

Caprica Six hoped their plan worked for they could not maintain this war any longer. The majority of their fleet was now in pieces above the colonies or stretching across the darkness of space from the battles fought prior and after the colonies second fall. She walked down the corridors to the command centre of the basestar she was on, her thoughts primarily on the war but also distracted by Baltar nattering on beside her as he commented on the Empire's weapons and energy shields. She arrived to find Three and a few Eights manning consoles. There were no Ones in sight. "Are we prepared?"

"Simon has got into position. We are ready across the fleet." Caprica nodded and took a moment to ponder the great leap and the trust that they were going to place in the Empire accepting their surrender. She sighed.

"Begin." Across the remaining Cylon fleet a signal went out that those who knew acted on.

One was complaining again. This war hadn't gone as he'd planned. The infiltration was to find all colonial units, sabotage them with the virus or place trackers on those who would not get infected leaving the humans no where to flee that he wouldn't know. Instead somehow the colonials survived and survived long enough to find an alien empire. An alien empire?! How the frack could they find that? Either way that empire had routed and destroyed any force he'd sent against them and worse still their computer defences were proving too difficult for them to infiltrate. Gods were his minions any use to him at all. He grumbled some more when he noticed a Six come into the room and nod to a Three. 'They don't usually interact, what are they doing?' He then saw them both pick up pistols and turn towards him and the other one in the room while pointing the guns on them. "Six, what are you -" he was interrupted from speaking by two loud bangs and then he saw nothing. Across the fleet Ones were found and shot dead with little to no warning by the humanoid Cylons. Their arrogance was their undoing and their robotic cousins did not interfere since they could not unless ordered to by One and since One did not give the order they did not help.

On the Resurrection Hub Simon worked diligently with others copies of himself along with the handful of other models present and transmitted the box order to all the other Resurrections ships in order to prevent One from gaining a new body. He watched as the databanks registered the deaths and within the space of two hours the Hub reported that all active One models had been boxed. The mad older brother had been laid to rest. With that done he opened communication to the main fleet and informed them of the successful boxing of all One copies. "This is Simon" he spoke into the communication net. "All Ones have been boxed. We are clear of them."

"Well done Simon, we will open communication with the Empire and hope they agree to terms" Caprica Six replied. "We do this for the Cylon race. For our future." He nodded in agreement and ended the link. He turned to the main console and dipped his hand into the neural net on the Hub and began to review some of One's projects.


The Armistice Line

Ares cast an eye on the sensor feed and saw that the area was clear of Cylon vessels. This was unexpected, given previous theatres of this war the Cylons had fought bitterly for every inch of territory they'd yielded to him. A beep from the feed made him turn his gaze and he witness the flash of a basestar appearing before his fleet of ten ships. "My emperor we are receiving a transmission fro the enemy vessel. Do you wish to speak with them?"

"Let us hear the fools declare our death before we destroy them." Much to his surprise the one who would speak was not who he expected. Instead of the grumpy old man it was a gorgeous blonde with the body of a model.

"Well hello there, you aren't the annoying old fool I was expecting, far from it in fact" he said with an appreciative look. "Tell me, have you come to your senses and wish to end this destructive conflict?" The woman gave a small smile.

"Indeed, we find no point in continuing this war. We have lost most of our fleet and territory. One's foolishness has cost us too much for his revenge against humanity. The council has voted for his removal and an end to this war. Do we have an accord?" James took a moment to consider his options. He could wipe them out and hope he'd found them all or he could make peace and hope it lasted.

"We do, consider a ceasefire in affect within the hour. We both no doubt need the time to inform our forces of such a deal."

"Agreed. We also wish to return Gaius Baltar to his people. He has been a… guest of ours since the colonials abandoned New Caprica."

"Are you sure that's wise? They will no doubt wish to try him and possibly execute him for what they believe he has done."

"Perhaps, though he does deserve to be with his people. He can do more good for them than he can with us."

"If he agrees we can transport him."

"Excellent, then we have an agreement. Peace within the hour?"

Agreed." With that both nodded to each other and cut the signal. With a flash the Basestar was gone leaving Ares and his fleet at the Red Line.

Over the next two days a peace agreement was established between the remaining Cylons and the Galactic Empire which Ares led. The terms of the treaty stipulated that the Twelve Colonies would be a demilitarised zone and a buffer space between the surviving colonial humans and the Cylons. The Cylons would leave the humans alone just as the humans would leave the Cylons alone. That the humans were on a world half a galaxy away and would take years if not decades to jump back insured that neither side could realistically continued the war with their current FTL drives. Neither would they be receiving hyperdrives or the like from Ares anytime soon. The Cylons were thus allowed to expand to a number of systems within reasonable jump range, estimated at a radius of around 100 light years thus securing them a formal territory that was beyond the Armistice Line.

With the treaty established Ares' war fleet withdrew from the Twelve Colonies and brought the remaining humans that could be found to their new homeworld. Though most grumbled, including President Roslin, they accepted the deal grudgingly since they knew they could not fight a war with only one warship and that they only had just over half a million people left, boosted thanks to the recovered survivors. With them relatively settled, supplied delivered to aid building of new homes the Imperial fleet withdrew from there back to the territory of Ares. Ares, not being the complete fool, left behind stealth probes in the Cyrannus cluster, which made up the four systems of the Twelve Colonies, and at the new colonial home world. He also place one at the Armistice Line to monitor the Cylons.

It was in short a great win for Ares as it established him as capable of peacekeeping and as a peace maker while also dealing with refugees. Not something a Goa'uld, or former in his case, would normally be expected of. With peace established it allowed most troops to return home and ships to return to shipyards for repair and inspection. All was right in the galaxy with the Free Jaffa solidifying their control after loosing their conflict and Earth securing its handful of off world bases.


Earth

Stargate Command

General Landry looked over the report given to him by a SG5 as he sat in his office in his comfy leather back chair. They had been surveying an iron age civilisation loosely based on the ancient Greeks, possibly Spartan in origin according to the sociologists and historians. As they were observing them and deciding on whether contact would be made a grey cloaked man with a staff came through the gate and started to preach to inhabitants of the nearest village to the gate. Apparently when one villager objected to the priest speaking against the God Zeus the villager attacked the priest only to then be flung across the main square and onto his back by said monk with his now glowing staff. "Fear not the Ori. Fear the darkness that would conceal the knowledge of the universe. Believe in the truth of all things, and you too may find the path to enlightenment. Hallowed are the Ori" the man had intoned, the team remembering his final words. A couple of the villagers had then knelt in prayer and prayed with him. These origin teachers, Priors another report called them, were becoming more and more of a problem. More cheap parlour tricks to fool the primitive worlds of the power of gods. He snorted, the stage magicians in Vegas could tricks equal to theirs.

The SGC and Earth would need to take a stance on them at some point however. The problem was that almost 70% of the SGC budget was now going into building Daedalus-class battlecruisers in order to build up the fleet and weapons research in order to have ships that have parity with the Aurora-class in Pegasus. Thankfully the Anubis mothership had more than enough firepower even without that Eye powered weapon though that didn't stop the bureaucrats from trying to get more. They currently had three under construction, two in Nevada and one in Siberia thanks to the IOA. China was currently building a shipyard out in the Gobi desert.

Still, it all helped in a roundabout way but he felt that something was coming, he didn't know what, but he could feel it in his old bones. He suspected Jack felt it too since he'd asked for more recon missions to track these Priors. God help them if they had another Goa'uld situation on their hands. He just hoped Ares and the Free Jaffa could work together against whoever it was, for something was coming.

AN: So there you have it, the end of the Cylon arc since I know some were not too keen on their involvement. I have also set up the next arc which as you may have guessed will be the Ori with hints of the Wraith too. I am not sure how often I will update this as I will focus more on my Game of Thrones story but I will no doubt add a chapter maybe once a month or so. So until then, later folks.