267.021 Confed liaison office New Caprica: Major Chang was reviewing the orders and trans that had come in overnight. As he read through them, he found two that made him smile, and one that filled him with apprehension. He quickly contacted Apollo and asked if he could see him right away. Half an hour later he was at the Colonial Intersystem forces building, and was entering Commander Apollo's office. He just looked at the aide and was waved through. Apollo could tell by the look on his face that something was troubling Winston.

"Apollo, I think you had better read these." and he handed him three printouts.

As Apollo looked at the printouts, he smiled to himself. "I see that Admiral Tolwyn approved my recommendations for the field commanders and the uniforms. It will be good having William and Chris along on this mission."

"Not those two Apollo, this one." and he pulled out the bottom report. Apollo read the report, "I don't see a problem here Winston."

"Apollo. A whole battalion of Kilrathi marines."

"Winston, I know that your people fought the Kilrathi for almost 5 decades, but these marines are part of the Kilrathi Worlds contingent. I have personal assurances from the Kilrathi Shin-Tar Melek that his troops will fight bravely and will not dishonor their Hrai. Besides, your people won that war, and if the cylons make it here, the Kilrathi will be in as much danger as humans."

Vagabond just looked at him, "Your right Apollo, but it may be difficult for some of the Confed troops to work with the Kilrathi."

"I know Apollo, that's why we have this man as the overall leader of the ground forces." and he handed Vagabond another printout.

Winston read the printout, "General Carl Dekker, Confed Marines, survivor of Rapleetah and 3 years in a Kilrathi POW camp."

"From what I understand, that was one of the bloodiest battlegrounds between your people and the Kilrathi. I also found out that the Col managed to escape from the POW camp with the help of a Kilrathi prisoner. This Kirathi prisoner was a servant of a human pilot, his name is Major Kirha."

Winston still looked apprehensive. "Besides Winston, we've got the rest of this year to mold the four units into a cohesive force."

"I would love to be there when the all of the battalion commanders meet, that would be interesting."

"Don't worry Winston, you will. But for now, I want your opinion on this. It's the new Bomber design from Virgil and Rachel."

Winston looked at the design on the comp-pad and was impressed. "4 improved lasers, 2 tri-mount missile launchers, 1 torpedo launcher, improved power plants, inertia dampeners, improved avionics, longer ranged scanners, enhanced armor, and E.M. shields."

"That's not all that our people have improved on Winston. We took the designs of your torpedoes and replaced the warheads with Solonite. It provides a much larger blast than the original warhead."

"How much larger Apollo."

"Oh about 5 megaton's worth."

Winston whistled, "Now that would put the fear of god into anybody."

The two of them then looked at the other new designs and upgrades that the Colonial/Confed engineers had come up with.

"Where did you get these design from Apollo?"

"Most of the designs were in our computer, but we didn't have the facilities or the resources to build them. But now with the help of the processing ships and the extra ship tenders, our engineers believe that we should have a decent size fleet in less than a year."

"Apollo, how come you're still using the same type of energizers?"

"Well the engineers found that the Tylium energizers worked better than your Matter/Antimatter power plants. The energizers produce the same power output, while using less than 10 percent of the power input as your M/AM generators. They've also found large deposits of Tylium in at least 100 systems throughout the Confederation."

Winston looked at Apollo, "If confed can start using Tylium instead of M/AM, then the power availability on their ships would be unbelievable."

"It's another aspect of our technology exchange program."

Apollo then activated the monitor on his desk, and brought up the plans for the training base for the marines. It was located on New Ares and was desolate looking to say the least. "I hope that General Dekker is pleased with the new base."

"Well if I know GroPo's, this will be a luxury for them."

Both of them laughed a little. "Well the base does have all of the amenities that the general asked for, but why he wouldn't let us put up barracks for the troops is still a mystery to me Winston."

"I'm sure the general has his reasons Apollo."

"Well, we can ask him when he arrives tomorrow. Winston, what do you know about skipper missiles?" Apollo saw Winston's face blanch and he looked like someone had walked on his grave.

"Why do you need to know Apollo?"

"Because Shin tar Melek is sending us a dozen of them."

Winston had a look of shock on his face, and Apollo saw that the idea of skipper missiles scared him.

"Apollo, the kilrathi developed some unusual weapons during the war, and the skipper missile was one of them. We call it a skipper missile, because it is fired from extreme long range, about three times the normal range of Cap ship missiles. Then the missile cloaks, and flies toward the target. It decloaks long enough to verify target lock and then recloaks. The only way to stop a skipper missile is with a fighter with visual contact with it, and putting a lot of ordinance into it."

Apollo seemed impressed by this, and he looked at Winston, "Did you ever face a skipper missile Winston?"

"Yes Apollo, twice. The first time I missed the missile, and it took out a frigate. The second time I hit it and was almost killed by the blast wave."

Apollo smiled, "Then the cylons wont stand a chance against them."

When the ships carrying the troops arrived in system, they proceeded to orbit around New Ares. The cargo ships proceeded to New Kobol to offload their cargo. After they had finished, the crew of the kilrathi ship received a special cargo to be delivered to Shin tar Melek, with a hand written note.

"Shin tar, again thank you for seeing the wisdom of this plan. I hope you enjoy our gift to you, as I know we will enjoy the gift you sent us. Senator Tigh Leonas."