January 10, 2020, Battlestar Galactica

Admiral William Adama was nearing desperation. Three weeks ago, the Cylons had found them as they were leaving a nuclear wasteland that was Earth. The Cylons destroyed all three food production ships in deliberate attempt to starve the fleet. Well, it was working. Two days ago the last scraps of food were distributed to the fleet. No one has eaten since then.

One year ago things had been so promising. The Pegasus had jumped back to the colonies, with the help of Sharon, and rescued some 2,000 survivors. Shortly after, Laura Roslin had won the election for President. Then, tragedy struck with the destruction of cloud nine and the death of over 1,000. It was then that he had learned that the President had taken the daughter of Sharon and Karl Agathon and given her to a young woman to raise as her adopted daughter. This came to light as Hera's adoptive mother had been on Cloud Nine when it exploded and Dr. Cottle brought to light her parentage. Against the objections of President Roslin, He had allowed Sharon and Karl Agathon to have custody of their daughter. He also made Sharon a Lieutenant in the Colonial fleet in exchange for her help in rooting out the last of the Cylon infiltrators in the fleet as well as finding and removing all tracking devices left in the fleet. She has performed at the highest level since becoming a Lieutenant.

Things went smoothly for the next nine months as the fleet searched for the legendary home of the thirteenth tribe. Then they ran across a group of rebel Cylons led by a model three, D'Anna Biers. Apparently, this model three was the last of her model as the Cavil model ones had eliminated the rest. She was accompanied by the remaining twos, sixes and eights as Cavil had eliminated the rest of them as well. There was a Cylon civil war due to the questioning of the genocide of the human race by the rebels. The entire fleet learned that the model ones had been behind the genocide of the human race. Against the vociferous objections of the Quorum and President Roslin, he had allied with the rebel Cylons to destroy the resurrection hub and permanently eliminate the ability of the Cylons to be reborn after their destruction. Their mission was successful, however, the rebel baseship was destroyed in the effort. D'Anna Biers, 7 model twos, 45 model sixes and 46 model eights escaped from the baseship and became "guests" on the Galactica. It was then that life gave them another swift kick in the behind. Saul Tie, Ellen Tie, Samuel Anders, Chief Tyrol and Tory Foster were revealed to be the final five models of the Cylons, all unique individuals with no copies. They also claimed that they only learned of their true nature after the destruction of the resurrection hub and that they knew the location of Earth. Needless to say, that revelation took a while for Admiral Adama to come to terms with. Eventually, however, they resumed their journey to Earth with the Cylons joining the crew as pilots, deck crew, engineers and scientists. The military quickly accepted this help as they had already been interacted with the rebel Cylons and began to see them as actual individuals rather than machines. Even President Roslin was beginning to come around. The civilian population was having major difficulties with allowing the rebel Cylons to even live, much less joining the fleet.

After two months, they found Earth. Frack! It was a nuclear wasteland. Walking on the planet removed the final mental blocks of the final five and they were able to detail how they came to exist. Apparently, the thirteenth tribe was a tribe of Cylons. They left Kobol as a result of being treated as slaves by the other twelve tribes. They found a jewel of a world and named it Earth and then proceeded to build their own machines and had the same problem that the Twelve Colonies had with a machine rebellion. The five of them had re-discovered resurrection technology and used that to escape their own holocaust and journey to the Colonies to stop the cycle from happening again. They were too late, but made a deal with the centurions that they would provide resurrection technology and human model Cylons in exchange for peace. The Cylons agreed and once the original eight models were made, the Cavils betrayed them. The Sevens were wiped out and the original five were killed and resurrected without memories of their true nature and put in the Colonies with new memories.

Ellen, however, had a few different thoughts on Colonial history. Apparently, she was part of a sect that believed that humans didn't originate on Kobol. They were brought to Kobol by the false gods from Earth, the real Earth. Then, her sect's beliefs rejoin traditional Colonial religious beliefs that the Lords of Kobol and their Asgard allies threw down the false gods so that humans could live in paradise with the true gods, the Lords of Kobol. Ellen then stated that Cylon Earth had simply been named after the original Earth and that Earth was still out there, somewhere. When this was revealed to the public, they ate it up. Adama couldn't believe that the same civilians who were up in arms over the Cylons being a part of the fleet would believe the fairy tales of one. Most of the crew believed her as well. Lieutenant Gaeta and Petty Officer Dualla believed it, he could see it in their eyes as well as the majority of the rest of the crew. In a meeting with the Cylon leadership, Lee, Laura, Baltar, Major Shaw and Tom Zarek it was clear that only Ellen Tie believed the story amongst that group. However, the human need for hope mandated that they try and find this original Earth. He was determined to find a nice habitable world someplace that the Cavils would not find them.

"Contact, six raptors on dradis" called out Lieutenant Felix Gaeta as Adama was brought back to the present. "Clear them to land and have them report to the conference room" commanded Admiral Adama. Frack, he hoped the world they were sent to scout would have the food they desperately needed.

An hour later, a smiling Gaius Baltar presented their findings. "This world has an abundance of edible plant and animal life as well as water. In fact, amazingly, many species are Colonial standard. We have trees with apples, cherries, oranges, peaches and pineapples. There are wild boar, wild chickens and herds of animals that are nearly identical to the cattle species that were found throughout the Colonies. We even found some ruins that are very similar to those found on Kobol. We even found this" stated Baltar pointing to the images on a computer screen that depicted a circular ring with a number of symbols on it. "This is identical to the Ring of the Lords of Kobol found in the Caprica Museum of History." Adama looked at the screen and replied, "if I remember correctly, legend has it that the Lords used these rings to travel from world to world. However, as interesting as these ruins may be, our priority is to secure the food resources of this world. Any exploration of these ruins will only occur once our primary objective is secured. Ready the fleet to jump in two hours. Saul, I want you to organize teams from the Galactica to secure our objective. Lee, I want you to organize teams from the Pegasus to do the same."

"Admiral" queried President Roslin. "I wonder if we might allow the civilian population an opportunity to visit the planet. We have dozens of civilian raptors and shuttles that would allow hundreds at a time to visit the planet. It would do wonders for morale to allow everyone to stretch their legs on a real world." Adama replied, "fine, however, I want military escorts for every group. Major Shaw, I want you to arrange the escort." "Yes, sir." replied Major Shaw. "We will jump in two hours and start landing an hour after that. Dismissed." commanded the Admiral. Pilots and their ECO's as well as the remaining officers snapped to attention and then began to leave. "I hope this goes smoothly, no surprises" commented Laura Roslin as she left the room. "Me too" said Adama as he silently prayed to the Lords of Kobol.

P3X-475

The stargate sprang to life as the Mark 1 Jumper erupted from the event horizon shortly thereafter. Major Jennifer Hailey, flew the jumper to the ruins located several miles from the gate, scanning the entire area for any signs of trouble. She like most people on Earth had received the gene therapy that activated her dormant Alteran genes that allowed her to operate their technology. Beside her was Captain Eric Jones, an expert combat specialist and behind them Dr. Tracy Campbell and Dr. Frank Bartkowski the diplomatic and scientific part of the team, SG-2. In addition to the team, four scientists assigned by Stargate Command to explore the Alteran ruins located on this world. It was now standard procedure to take a jumper on all off world missions. Additionally, if they ran into trouble, they had a subspace radio in the jumper. For this mission, Colonel Carter and the Hammond were their backup. "Ok, I will set us down over there" stated Hailey, leader of SG-2. The jumper landed and the rear hatch soon opened. "Jones and Campbell come with me. We will set a defensive perimeter to make sure nobody surprises us. Bartkowski, you stay with the Jumper and monitor the scanner to make sure with have no surprises from space. Scientists, have fun!" They all exited the jumper and began their work.