[Author's Notes:
candel06: I will when I get there, though I do expect a quick response, if my current rate of finishing chapters are any to go by.
thor94: On your first question: Very little, the unlike Wilkins original story Furlings went extinct differently, As the with the Ancients, they went into a decline and it went sharply down shortly after the Ancients abandoned Atlantis. And after encountering both the Ori and Berzerker drones they went extininct, nether the Tau'Ri, Nox or the Asgard know this or will learned of this, besides the last contact the Asgard had with the Furlings was 1,500 years earlier in the story and for Nox about 2,200 years.
On your second question: Only One know about Anubis, the other models doesn't remember the encounter, and he hopes that Anubis is dead.
On your final question: This prior knowledge is just used to put the hammer, pun intended, on mainstream Colonial Faith after the war.]
Chapter 13. Preparation of things to Come
In a communication room onboard the Odyssey the Naval personnel stationed there was feverishly at work, listening to various Colonial broadcasts. The Colonial media was also going in full overdrive.
The Colonial press had zoomed in and out of screen-captures of the Odyssey and they had brought in their pet military experts, most of whom were former Generals or Admirals to study the ship. The experts was going over every detail they could get ranging from the ship's size to the hangars bays found on either side they even compared it to pictures of the Ark Royal. Other experts studied the actual broadcast fro the Odyssey, and guessed everything, from the Cap. Lorne's height (granted it was needed for a reference point) to overall layout of Odyssey's bridge (or CIC as the Colonials called it).
"Wow, these people are almost as bad as our own news media." noted a sailor. The Odyssey had made contact just five hours earlier and the Colonial news networks didn't show any signs of stopping. Even though the "Breaking News" warning was flashing across the screen every twelve minutes or so, it was hardly a soul among the the Twelve Colonies who knew already. "Its like watching a rerun, they keep repeating the same story over and over."
"Consider yourself lucky, Mike, you got the Caprican news." said another sailor. "I however, have to listen to these Sagittaron news and they are talking about is the religious side of things.
"What are they talking about then?" asked another sailor who was bored out of her mind listening to military broadcasts, the Odyssey cyberwarfare division had managed to use the backdoor found in the Colonial Navy's Navigation Computers to listen in their communications at a very high level, but most of it was routine communications checks.
"Mostly about some ancient scrolls of theirs." laughed the sailor that was listening to the Sagittaron news. "The they speak about the reunion of their lost colony of Earth and some ceremonies that has to be done. Religion is going to be a major issue here, maybe more so than we expected.
"How so sailor, apart from the Ori, we have so far no real issue with the religion of the other worlds we have made contact with." inquired the Division Officer , who were the only person among the fifteen sailors in the room not listening on Colonial broadcasts.
"Well Sir." started the sailor in question. "About few hours ago, their faith's equivalent of a Catholic Cardinal or Pope appeared on a news room as a guest, and talked about a cleansing how they would explained that to us."
"Sounds like an inquisition." said the officer.
"It was Sir. About a hundred and fifty years ago they had some splinter faiths that started to form, mostly monotheist. They went whole Spanish Inquisition on them and killed them or drove them off-world, or cleansed them as they call it. Since the Colonial faith is mostly polytheistic, they seem to allow some form divination in the way people worship, such as which day or days the hold sacred and which god they hold important. It all ended when a coalition of colonies became fed up with the whole shebang and started to imprison priests and priestesses on flimsy charges and instituted apartheid laws against non-believers of the Colonial faith, of which only Gemenon and Sagittaron still have on the books."
"I see." said the Division Officer as she placed her hand under her chin. "What do you think about it sailor?"
"They will probeable see us in the same light as the Ori did." started the sailor. "As believers of a false God and that they want to do the same to us. At least that the Sagottarons will, I am not sure about the others or their minority faiths, the news discussion had a Caprican priest to counter the Sagittaron hard liner."
"I see, we need to look into this a bit more." confirmed the Division Officer as she made a mental note, in two hours she would sending what they have gathered to intelligence experts back on earth, who will comb over everything.
Meanwhile on the water world of Picon, the Colonial fleet had every high-ranking officer and expert they could get on short notice, and was working them hard to try to gather any information they could.
Sadly, they had pretty much the same information as the news outlets, and that was normally a job that Colonels and Majors should do, not Generals and Admirals.
"So Dr. Baltar, what do you think?" inquired a Colonial Commander the smartest man in the Twelve Colonies of Kobol.
"I am not totally sure Commander." admitted Dr. Gaius Baltar, as the playboy scientist looked over the the one-sided battle between the Pegasus Battlegroup and the Ark Royal. Dr. Baltar was focused on the blue energy beam sthat were shot from the Tau'Ri ship.
"Its most likely plasma." offered the sole person Dr. Baltar had brought with him. The woman had caused a few heads to turn as she walked through the corridors in a tight black pants suit and an even tighter red low-cut red top. "Nothing else we know could cut through a Battlestar like that."
"Plasma?" asked the Commander.
"The fourth state of matter, it can burn through almost anything we know about." explained Dr. Balter before he turned towards his companion. "The question is how did they manage to contain it. It naturally expands as it cools,, possibly with an magnetic field of some form."
"Is there any defence against it?" asked an Admiral, as the door opened and another blonde woman walked in.
I may have an answer for you Admiral." said the woman as multiple people looked back and forth to the two women. They both had the same eyes, face and body type, only the hair and clothing was different. The new arrival had a darker hue of blond hair and wore a blue uniform that marked her as a civilian contractor at the R&D department of the Colonial Navy.
"Hello Gina." said Dr. Baltar's companion, with enough venom in her voice to kill within seconds.
"Natasi." said Gina with the same tone and noticed to looks people had. "We are sisters."
"Near identical twins?" wondered Dr. Baltar as his mind raced with images of all the dirty stuff he could do with with twins.
"Triplets actually." came another voice as a matching woman, though this with a inch cut hair and carrying a briefcase walked. Beside her was a sphinx skinned man with perfectly shaved head. "Some family reunion we have here sisters."
"Oh look, its Jane." spat Natasi with contempt. "How are things in the stargazing field?"
"She must be doing something good in order to work with Dr. Herbert, everyone knows that he is the best deep space researcher we have." snapped Gina in her sister's defence.
"He is nothing compared to Baltar." laughed Natasi.
"Well she didn't need to suck cock to get work, like you do." spat Gina.
"I would say that you did the same to get were you are now Gina, but you like it the other way." laughed Natasi as Gina gave her sister a death glare.
"Ladies, can we put this family squabble aside for the moment and get to work?" asked the Admiral. "We don't need a fight here."
"I would liked to see that." stated Dr. Baltar, as the three women glared at him. Little did he or the other Colonials knew that these three women were Cylons, more precise, Cylon human-form model Six, or that Dr. Herbert was model Four. The fight between the three Sixes were just a means to create a believable backstory.
"Now we need to focus on why we are here." ordered the Commander. "We need to find out as much as possible about our cousins. So Gina, if I may, how can we stop this weapon?"
"You may, basically you can't stop it, but you can protect yourself from it." explained Gina. "See how the beams that destroyed this Battlestar, while it only badly damaged the Pegasus, the key is where the beam hit."
"What do you mean?" asked the Colonial Commander.
"The beam hit the Pegasus directly below the third port 45cm gun, that is the key." reported Gina.
"And, why Gina would that matter at all?" asked Natasi as her sister grinned.
"It matters because six months ago there was an accident with a civilian cargo ship." explained Gina. "It crashed into the Pegasus there, leaving a rather large dent into the hull, but with no other damage. Instead of taking the ship out for a year, they just added extra armour there and decided to fix it during the next overhaul"
"Basically, they hit the Pegasus at the her most armoured part?" asked the Admiral.
"Yes, that explains why the Pegasus took the hit better." stated Gina.
"Yes, and by better you mean it blew into two burning chunks rather than million molten chunks" noted Jane.
"Yes Jane, if you take into consideration on what happened to the other ships, with enough armour you can increase your chance of survival."
"How much armour are we talking about, Gina." inquired the Admiral.
"The armour on a Mercury class Battlestar is 1.8m thick, and the spot that the Pegasus took the hit was 2.4m thick." explained Gina. "I estimate an armour between 3.6 to 4.2m thick could take the plasma hit once maybe two times, if the Battlestar in question was lucky"
"So, in order to our Battlestars to have a chance of survival you want to add 1.8m of armour." cursed the Admiral, as he tried to fathom how much cubits and time it would take to add all that armour on every Battlestar in the fleet, let alone, every other ship in the fleet. Suddenly he remembered his military history. "The Jupiter class Battlestar, how thick is their armour?"
"3.6m, the designers back then used the number twelve as much as possible, and three point six divided by three is one point two." answered Gina, as she also remembered her own studies on Colonial ship design. "It is a lucky number after all."
"How many do we have in the fleet?" inquired the Commander.
"Originally they were only plans for twelve, but if I remember correctly, they made over a hundred." reported Gina. "But honestly, I don't know how many made through the war."
"I need to inform high command to focus on getting Jupiter class ships out of mothball first." said the Admiral. "I need the all of you to keep working. By the way, ms. Jane Inviere and Dr. Herbert, the Galactica is sending two of her officers over. They were assigned to monitor and translate the transmissions we got potentially from Raluch, I need you two check their findings and extrapolate an accurate heading."
"We will Admiral." said the Four in his booming voice.
Inside a seedy strip-club in the city of Delphi on Caprica, five people was having a meeting in a VIP room. The two strippers that was there to entertain the fivesome thought they spoke some form of cant as a lot of their criminal clientele did so. However the five spoke their native tongue, the native tongue of the Thirteen Tribe.
"We need to address the betrayal." said Samuel Anders, the captain of the Caprica Buccaneers Pyramid team.
"All evidence so far, is One killed our bodies, then resurrect us with fabricated memories and sent us to the Colonies." stated Ellen Tigh. "And what Tory said prior to her previous death, she saw a One talk with a strange figure, most likely a Goa'Uld from Æsir Sagas."
"Some thing about that figure creep me out." said Tory Foster. "That strange mask he wore."
"Did you ever got a name, Tory?" asked Chief Tyrol.
"I think it was Anubis."
"The jealous God." said Chief Tyrol, drawing upon his fabricated father's job description.
"In any case, what shall we do now?" asked Col. Tigh. "We need more information, Chief, next time we meet bring your girlfriend with you."
"I have no idea what your are talking about Colonel." said Chief Tyrol.
"C'mon, I am not blind or deaf, I know you have fraking the Eight posing as Lt. Valerii."
"Okay Colonel." said Chief Tyrol. "You got me, but she is a sleeper, and I don't want to risk poking into her code and let One find out."
"So, you are going to keep fraking that snake." said Tory Foster, with disappointment.
"It wasn't roses for us the last twenty years Tory, remember." countered Chief Tyrol. "We spent more time fighting each other than loving each other.'
"That's the truth of the day." stated Samuel Anders.
"What about the Tau'Ri?" inquired Tory Foster. "Their existence proves the 'First World' theory they had back on our Earth."
"It doesn't help that the Æsir Sagas here have similar ideas." said Samuel Anders.
"No it won't." said Ellen Tigh, as the head researcher of the Resurrection technology back home, she was the de facto leader of the five. "Each one of you, do a data query on every Cylon you encounter, and we meet again here in two weeks, I arrange everything and send notes to ones not present, okay?"
"And for frak sake, act as if nothing has happened." ordered Col. Tigh
"By your command." said the other three.
"Good, now if you don't mind." started Ellen Tigh. "Saul, why don't we split the right one?"
"Why not Ellen." confirmed Col. Tigh to his wife, as they walked towards one of the two strippers and asked her to followed them to a nearby hotel.
At the headquarters for the first Perimeter Command, a meeting between the Tau'Ri Armed Forces and Tau'Ri Civilian Intelligence Agency were taking place. The room itself was darkened to better view the holographic projection of the Twelve Colonies of Kobol.
"So what do we know for sure?" asked Field Marshall Raj Singh, commander of the First Perimeter Command and military governor of Valhalla.
"The Twelve Colonies of Kobol are 2,002ly and 133ld away from Valhalla." started an CIA analyst. "It is double binary about 46ld in radius and 12ld from zenith to nadir if we take the inner perimeter of the system's Oort Cloud as a boundary for the system, the cloud itself extends to further into the Oort clouds of sixty nearby systems. It is also on our eastern flank to of the path between Earth and Pegasus. While they have over a dozens daughter colonies through out the system only the main twelve are of note, though the daughter colony on Hibernia have a population nearly equal to that of Scorpia, the second smallest colony, population wise."
"Sounds like Washington before it became a state." noted Marshal Singh, as Washington D.C. had become a federal state two years prior alongside Puerto Rico.
"I am not here for a history lesson, are they a threat?" inquired a Russian born Theatre General.
"Undoubtable, General." confirmed another analyst. "Based upon the life signs alone, we estimate that total population is about are about 52 billion, but only 28 billion are listed in their census."
That caused Marshall Singh's head to spin, that number was just short of a quarter of the Tau'Ri's total population if one didn't include any protectorates, with them the Tau'Ri population quintuple and then some.
"With twelve major worlds and their level of technology, thought it would be higher." stated a French born General.
"Well two of their major worlds are lightly populated, and they have only been there for tow thousand years." stated second analyst. "It gets worse, we have their total number of military hulls, and the number isn't good"
"How many?"
"375 warships" stated the first analyst, which at the start sounded not bad, but then he finished." Per major world, for a grand total 4,500 warships of different classes and types."
"My God." whispered a Major. It didn't take long for group to realize that the Colonials, in the short term could weather what the Tau'Ri had. The colonials had more ships, a rather large pool of modern populous to pull soldiers from, and a large local industrial base to build ships and weapons.
"Now I should like to stress that most of these ships are actually sitting in mothball as an orbital defence line, and those ships are twenty to forty years old. Even then they have 4,500 ships to call to duty if needed." said the first analyst as he looked down to his notes. "At the moment, the Colonials have 150 active Battlestars, which is a Dreadnought built to act as both old-style aircraft carrier and as pure battleship. 200 Pocket Battlestars, who are smaller and faster, but carries less fighters or guns. Then there are 350 destroyers, 300 Cruisers and 250 Frigates in their fleet. The remainder 600 are Corvettes, used as a Coast Guard. I am not going to list their axillaries."
"It still 1,800 or so ships and a near equal number in mothball." stated the Major.
"Yes Major, while we have the edge when it comes to overall firepower and technology." started the second analyst. "Our ships are better armed, better defended and we have access to technologies that the Colonials can only dream of such as shields and energy based weaponry. However, in the simulations we have run so far, our ships still fall after inflicting heavy damage upon the Colonials."
"Do we have any other edge currently over them beside technology?" inquired the Russian General, his own nation managed to use pure numbers to crush the Germans during WWII at the cost of millions souls, so he knew numbers could outperform technology.
"Yes, they don't know how tiny they are compare to most smaller star faring nations we know of." explained the first analyst. "They may know where Valhalla is, but not Earth."
"How about our allies."
"We don't include in our analysis matrix, since they and other worlds took the brunt of the Ori crusade for us. For once they shouldn't be called to clean our mess, besides half of them are either protectorate or full member in the Commonwealth."
"Is it possible for them to join in either as protectorate or Commonwealth member?" asked the French General.
"Possibly, but the Colonials have a strong conservative and at times a reactionary presence in their government we cannot ignore. This element most likely want that we join them.
"How big of an area do they claim besides their system?" asked a Chinese General.
"In theory, a sphere with a 60ly diameter, in effect however its just eight systems, the seven remaining are uninhabited, with no real value for them at the moment."
"And if they decide to attack Valhalla, how long will it take for them to get here?" inquired Marshall Singh.
"Let's see, their drives have a max range of 10ly, but that is because their navigational computers aren't as effective, and Valhalla is 2,000ly away from them." calculated the second analyst. "Their drives have a cool down period of 33min. Their warships have usually have to separate jump-drives, five days if jumped continually or seven or eight to Earth."
"Okay, so what sort of major issues can we expect it with these people?" asked the Russian General.
"Religion Sir, they believe that Earth is one of their colonies and that humans are the only sentient and sapient species in the galaxy." answered the first analyst. "Since about half of their total population or eighty percent of the censused population worship the Greek Pantheon, it is very likely that they were Goa'Uld slaves and somehow twisted the memory of Earth into their own mythos."
"Either way, they will see our religious beliefs as an affront to theirs, and based on the reports we have so far, there were times in their history when they heavily persecuted minority religions." said the second analyst.
"So I have a bunch possible religious nut cases within five days journey of Valhalla, with enough weapons to overpower our entire military at the moment." sighed Marshall Singh.
"Yes Sir." said the first analyst. "And if we didn't make contact, they would certainly would, in twenty years or so."
"Who is going to make official contact?"
"General Shepard, Dr. Woolsey and a seven ship task force with Missouri as its centre." said the first analyst. "The question is what do we recommend."
"Stay away from religion, same goes for allied non-human life and do not reveal the Stargate or the location of our worlds, they don't know of." recommended Marshall Singh.
Eleven hours later it was early morning on Celin, and Maj. O'Neill²was sound asleep in his bed suddenly there was movement on his wife's side of the bed. The sudden movement woke him up, it was still dark, and his Skyrim wives were reluctant to sleep on Cassie's side, it could only be one of two things. Either was Cassie home early from her night shift or Stanley the family dog was in the bed.
"Stanley what I have told you about getting on the bed?" said Maj. O'Neill² grumpily.
The three-year old lab's response was to lick his master's face before resting his head on Dr. O'Neill²'s pillow.
"Okay… but if Cassie see you then you are in for world of hurt Stanley." noted Maj. O'Neill² as he looked at the projected clock from his civilian wristcom charging on the night-stand, he had about fifteen minutes before he had to get ready for duty, so it was no reason to get back to sleep. Slowly he got up and took a shower before pulling out an old-fashioned straight-edge barber razor. Carefully he cut he stubble from his face, even though most men his apparent age preferred an electric or the new laser razor. Once he was finished grooming himself, he went down stairs to start making breakfast only to found his kids and youngest Skyrim wife, Kaie, already in the kitchen.
The nineteen year old Nord woman belonged to the group called Forsworn and was a bit smug, as she and extension her faction would win the race for the throne of Skyrim, as she was pregnant with twins.
"Hello husband." said Kaie, clad in what generously be described as a fur bikini. "Coffee?"
"Thank you." said Maj. O'Neill².
"Daddy look, grandpa is on TV!" said the Daniel O'Neill², the nine-year old boy was looking at the Good Morning America broadcast of an interview with the now Chief Marshall O'Neill.
"So he is." said Maj. O'Neill². "What do you want for breakfast?"
"I want pop-tarts." answered Daniel O'Neill² as he looked at his father with his mother's eyes. Maj. O'Neill² would never say it out loud, but he was happy that his son didn't look like Maj. O'Neill²'s brother Charlie, as he was a dead ringer for their older O'Neill and it still Maj. O'Neill² shared the hurt with his father despite having never met the boy. Kaie clumsy rose up and searched for the item in the pantry.
"And you sisters?" inquired Maj. O'Neill² as Daniel thanked Kaie.
"Here." said Daniel's twin sister Janet as she came down the stairs fully ready for school. "Cereal is just fine dad."
"Here, and Janet, have a sweetroll as your brother has pop-tarts for breakfast." said Kaie to Janet O'Neill². There was one thing that Kaie managed get the kids to do that Cassie and John agreed with was, if the one kid has something sweet for breakfast and the other had something plain and nutritious, then the latter child got something sweet as well.
"And Samantha, what do you want for breakfast?" inquired Maj. O'Neill² his youngest.
"Fruit Loops!" said Samantha O'Neill² as moved past her father and was handed the box of Fruit Loops by Kaie.
"And Kaie."
"Cassie left some 'Kurm Na and Ash Yam and Radchicken sallad for me yesterday." said Kaie.
"Alright you three, I have an early meeting so we will be leaving five minutes early. Your mom will pick you up from football (soccer) this afternoon." confirmed Maj. O'Neill² as he looked over his calendar app on his wristcom. He had a meeting with Marshall Sinigh about something and he wasn't sure about what. "What about you Kaie."
"Cassie will drive me to my check up and then I am off to the building site, by the way Senna will be coming over tonight." said Kaie as she ate her breakfast.
"Okay." said Maj. O'Neill² wondering why one of his other Skyrim wives were coming over.
"I don't understand why everyone is freaking out about the Stargate?" wondered Janet as she ate her Sweetroll. Maj. O'Neill² simply laughed which caused his daughter to look at him.
"It may not mean anything to you, considering you grew up here or on Atlantis." reported her father. "What is normal for you, is amazing news for the average Earther."
Meanwhile on Caprica, Comm. Adama stood in a small waiting room in the Presidential Mansion, in his best dress uniform. He did not know the purpose of his meeting with the Pres. Adar, but he could guess it was related with the Tau'Ri.
He had testified at the GMDC hearing and it it was becoming clearer by every moment, that Adm. Cain would be forced into early retirement at best, or worst, stripped of her rank and be sent to the military prison on the mining world of Troy. After his testimony, he was slipped a piece of paper with a date and time, so he found himself standing in front of the famous painting of the swearing ceremony of the first President of a united Twelve Colonies of Kobol. The door leading into the main office openened up as a young woman walked out.
"Comm. Adama? The President is waiting for you." said the woman, as Comm. Adama walked in to find Pres. Adar standing in front of his desk waiting the elder Colonial officer.
"Mr. President." saluted Comm. Adama.
"At ease Commander." said Pres. Adar as he shook the Commander's hand. "First, I have to thank you for finding our cousins."
"I am just sorry it cost so many lives in doing so." said Comm. Adama.
"We all are, and I hope so do our cousins." confirmed Pres. Adar, as he moved around his desk sat down. Without prompt Comm. Adama did the same. "However, all the reports say that you handled yourself and even advised against the attack."
"Mr. President, If I may be bold to ask, why am I here?"
"I have been told that you have put in your papers, that once the Galactica is retired you will as well, correct?" inquired Pres. Adar.
"Yes Sir." Confirmed Comm. Adama. "I started my career as a pilot on her and I want end my career on her."
"Well no one would disagree with your decision, however, what I'm going offer you might change your mind." stated Pres. Adar. "Comm. Adama, you have served the people of the Twelve Colonies of Kobol with honour for so many years and it is time that you are given the rank that you deserve."
With that statement, Pres. Adar pushed a small box across his desk to Comm. Adama, who opened it to find pips for the rank of a full Admiral, three ranks higher than he currently had. Comm. Adama's eyes widened a bit at the pips, he never wanted to be an Admiral, in fact he had avoided any chance of promotion, since at his age, it would mean a desk post.
"Sir, I hate to say this, but I'm not cut out for a desk job." reported Comm. Adama
"You will not be behind a desk, Cain has shown herself to be too hotheaded." reported Pres. Adar. "And I am afraid that there are few more of them having a flag rank in the colonial military. That means that we need more cooler heads to counter them. If you take this post, you will be in the military longer, but you will get a new ship."
"Sir, I don't want to leave the Galactica."
"You're not going to. I am sure that you have heard about the Heracles class Battlestars that are being built."
Comm. Adama blinked, the Heracles class Battlestar would be the newest ship in the Colonia Navy and they would be the biggest ship ever built. They would be nearly double the size of Galactica's own Jupiter class, and was designed to replace the Jupiter class. The plan was to build fourteen ships, one for each colony and two who were be able to respond any potential Cylon incursion. The first two were due to launch in two years, but given how fast shipyards normally worked, it would take four years instead.
"Sir I don't want to command those ships either, like I said, I want to stay on the Galactica." reported Comm. Adama.
"And until the Heracles class comes online, the Galactica and her sisters may be our best defence against our cousins if war comes." stated Pres. Adar as Comm. Adama blinked. "If our analysts are right, the armour on the Galactica and other Jupiter class ships should take a hit from Tau'Ri beam weapons."
"Are you or your analysts, expecting a war against the Tau'Ri?"
"No, but as the old saying goes, we must be prepared on the off chance that it happens, and you know the most about the Jupiter class ships. As Admiral, it will your job to bring those ships back into service and train our sailors how to work with the older technology."
"Yes, Sir!" confirmed Adm. Adama.
Inside the HQ of First Perimeter Command on Valhalla, another meeting was taking place between Marshall Singh and Maj. O'Neill². Between them was a large holotable showning the layout of what seemed to two Washington Malls, arranged into a cross.
So this is the capital city of these Twelve Colonies of Kobol I have heard about around base." said Maj. O'Neill².
"Yes, this their capital and from the information the Odyssey have gathered, this is where they plan to have the ceremonial welcome to their worlds." explained Marshall Singh. "It has the same general layout as the Mall of Washington D.C. with museums and government buildings forming the outer lines, with local planetary following one line and the federal following the other. At each en point is their equivalent of the House of Representatives and their Presidential Mansion on the other. At the centre of the cross you see a massive temple of the mainstream Colonial Faith.
"Military HQ?"
"At their Ministry of Defence, though each branch of their armed forces had their own Command building close to the city, but the army has their formal HQ on Tauron and the navy on Picon."
"That is a odd arrangement." noted Maj. O'Neill² as the Indian Marshall nodded his head in agreement. "This 'Mall' looks like a plus sign. Sir, why do I need to know about this?"
"Because your team will be assigned to be the close protective detail for General Shepard and Dr. Woolsey." explained Marshall Singh as Maj. O'Neill² nodded his head. "We can't afford to deal with these Colonials, if they get upset with us. We have too much on our plate as you Americans calls it. We have operations against the last Wraith warbands in Pegasus, the evacuation of Celestis, the movement of millions to Valhalla, and the upcoming Grand Conference on Gaia.
Maj. O'Neill² nodded his head, he had the reports about the conference being organized by the Nox between various Jaffa factions, who most of then claimed to represent all Jaffa in some capacity, rulers of dozens of free independent worlds and multisystem polities and finally the Tau'Ri. The goal for the conference was to set borders and trading rights to avoid wars. And since all the sides involved didn't trust each other, the only remaining original member of the Alliance of Four Great Races, the Tau'Ri had arranged so that Nox would mediating the conference.
"Okay, so it is a standard protection mission, with the added benefit being a first contact mission" said Maj. O'Neill². "Flight support?"
"Platoon Major Naach Lisenbe is commanding it." answered Marshall Singh. "We have loaned her from Ark Royal."
"Okay Sir. We can do this."
"Good Major, your team will board the Missouri when it passes by, after finishing its visit to Earth." ordered Marshall Singh "Full combat load in case it turns violent and as of this moment you are promoted to Battalion Colonel."
"Sir, Yes Sir." saluted Col. O'Neill².