Chapter 13

Location: Leonis, Lion Fleet Shipyards Drydock # 13

Date: February 15, 2025

Time: 0930 Hours

Leonis was home to a new expanse of drydocks, orbital factories, and outfitting shipyards for the Colonial Fleet. In the past six years it had been built up enormously, holding the capacity to have a dozen Battlestars under construction at once. Alongside these capital scale yards were smaller construction yards with more than thirty slips available for construction or complete overhaul of existing hulls ranging from a heavy cruiser or Marinestar to several destroyers. It was also a source of great controversy, with the budgetary expenditures used on the construction and use of such monstrous facilities the backlash was severe. Several Quorum members protested vigorously at the massive budget glut these docks created, citing the fact that the Cylons were gone.

So if there was no more enemy out there why was the Colonial Fleet so intent on expanding its already massive forces? The answer was one that people were starting to guess at with some degree of unknowing accuracy. It was Earth. Everyone knew of the spat the thirteenth colony had with them by now. The whistle blower in the Quorum had made certain of that. Many people were concerned that the Fleet was preparing for a new war, a war with Earth and felt the need to beef up their arsenal by enormous proportions.

However, these political guessing games were not the reason for Admiral William Adama to be here now, in a Raptor bound for an old friend with a new body. It was the newly christened Battlestar Galactica. She was the first ship of a new class of medium-sized Battlestars meant to replace the aging Columbia's. This class was named simply the Galactica Class and to tell the truth Bill Adama was pretty damn proud. He'd known that there was going to be a new follow-on class to replace the Columbia class, but he hadn't expected them to be commissioned so soon.

Galactica was the first of a batch of five such Battlestars to come out of the slips over Leonis and Picon, with another thirty-eight right behind them in six month intervals between commissioning each batch of ships. The yard workers had been competing to launch their respective ships first, driving their schedules to come out ahead of schedule and below projected estimates, insuring some nice bonuses and more possible contracts with the Fleet. And this was despite the extensive redesign that had come about after the Pegasus had proved that her new upgrades were the new standard and the Galactica Class was ordered to have these built into the design, rather than included after the fact. Galactica's own commissioning was just barely the first, her nearest sister, the Athenia, was actually set to go on trials right behind Galactica, which mad Adama very pleased. During his pilot days the pilots of the Battlestar Athenia were his personal rivals, always jockeying for position as the most prestigious squadrons of the fleet.

Yet here he was now, hovering past it in a Raptor piloted by a pair of his own pilots, soon to be assigned to Galactica.

"Doesn't look much like the old Galactica does it sir?" the pilot asked as they maneuvered around it, taking in the full view of the shiny new vessel.

"Not much, but she's a fine ship," Bill responded as he examined the ship from the co-pilot's seat.

What he was seeing was a fine ship indeed. This new ship was effectively the same size as the original Galactica but perhaps a little taller. The outward differences were stark in comparison to the old model. The ribbing and armored plates were gone, replaced by the cleaner, more efficient solid composite armor of the newer ships. The two hangar pods no longer needed to retract when they needed to jump, and were stacked like the Mercury Class, allowing for more Vipers to land and launch from the ship. The layout of the engine pods was mostly the same, however, there were some pretty major differences here as well. In the original Galactica there were six, with two in the stern and four arranged on the four corners of the ship's stern. This one had an additional engine pod mounted right in the middle of the stern between the two top pods for added speed.

Her armaments were actually very near to what the original loadouts were for the Columbia Class. There were twenty-eight twin turrets for her main battery mounted with twelve on the ship's spine, under the nose, and on the hangar pods. The nose of the ship, shaped more like a Mercury's than a Columbia's, also housed three magnetic cannons of the same size as the other Battlestars in the fleet. And protecting the Galactica were more than seventy CIWS gun turrets mounted all along the hull.

To support this ship it only needed a crew of two thousand. Most of these were assigned to working on or pilots the five hundred Viper Mk. VIII's that were standing by to take off from a few airfields on Leonis. The rest of the crew was standing by in troop ships much like the one Adama had first arrived on Galactica with. But a skeleton crew of civilians and the senior NCO's and officers was standing by to receive them and get the ship rolling so it could undergo trials.

"She'll do," Bill nodded in appreciation, seeing the writing of the ship's famous name on her starboard pod, "Take us in."

"Aye sir," the pilot replied, coming around the pod, aiming right in as he called out, "Raptor One-Three-Zero on approach to starboard pod."

"Roger Raptor One-Three-Zero, hands-on approach to starboard hangar. Call the ball."

"Copy hands-on approach Galactica. I have the ball," the man said as he pushed the Raptor forward, gently flying into the spacious hangar with the Colonial crest right in the entrance and light pulsing along the runway, guiding them in. There was a civilian ferry docked within the hangar, and the pilot easily made his way past it.

The Raptor touched down gently and Adama patted the pilot on the shoulder. The elevator shook the Raptor as they went down into the main hangar deck and Adama stood near the door, exhibiting a young energy at reliving the first experience of seeing Galactica for the first time. After a few moments a green light went on next to the door and then the door opened with a hiss.

Greeting Adama was a very familiar face, Chief Tyrol. He was wearing his classic orange and yellow uniform at the foot of the Raptor's wing. The senior NCO snapped off a crisp salute to his commanding officer and had it returned as Adama stood on the wing of the Raptor.

"Let me be the first to welcome you aboard the Battlestar Galactica Admiral," Tyrol said with a grin.

"Thank you Chief, it's good to see you," Bill responded as he got down from the wing feeling his energy at an all-time high as he looked around, "This looks familiar."

Around him was a sight he had been expecting, but it was still a very impressive first sight. The hangar was massive, with Viper stacks arranged along the wall. They were oddly empty of the Vipers that were so important to Battlestars, and were crawling with civilian contractors, finishing and testing their work with some sparks flying at last minute work was completed. It was still strangely quiet and empty, but the two of them knew that would change quickly.

"Colonel Tigh is already aboard sir," Tigh told Adama as an aide followed the Admiral and the Senior Chief, "Getting the layout of the ship in his head."

"Saul?" Adama asked, "They brought him out of the reserves as well huh?"

"That's not precisely true sir. Colonel Tigh requested assignment aboard Galactica when he heard you were taking command. Said that you would better things to do than getting the crew in shape."

Adama smiled and shook his head, knowing that was probably exactly what his XO had said. But knew that he was more than likely bored with civilian life. To be fair, so was he, and now he had a Battlestar. Not just any Battlestar, it was his Battlestar. Nothing would take that away, and he intended on accomplishing his mission, a mission that could change everything.

"Chief," Adama ordered, "Let's get to work."

Location: Picon Fleet Headquarters

Things for the Colonial Fleet's high command were tense. Between the reports from the RSEC's recent missions and the return of the Battlestar Pegasus with news of a battle and a captured alien starship to show for it the Colonials were not short for meetings. But there was one thing that had the Fleet's commanders in a near state of fear. The report from the Pegasus was not believed at first glance, so Admiral Cain had been ordered to return to report on this personally.

She was now standing before the assembled Fleet High Command Staff. This assembly of brass was jumpy, and really hoped that Cain had lost it. But with the way she stood there, they knew that she probably wasn't.

"Rear Admiral Cain," Admiral Nagala began, "You may make your report on the incident."

"Thank you sir," Cain began and nodded to a Lieutenant in the back at the controls of a computer and started her report with the added aid of pictures taken of the scenes. The first picture was of the two civilian ships that had started this whole incident, "We began searching for two civilian vessels that had failed to rendezvous with my battle group and found them at a nearby planet."

The next picture was brought up with another nod. This one was of the bloodied bridge of the Lucas Wanderer.

"We found this on both vessels. The civilian crew and passengers were either dead or missing. We deemed that this was an act of piracy and began searching for those responsible. We found this on the planet below."

Now it was a thermal image of the heat signatures of many people with a shape that the brass knew well by now. Next was a picture of the ship itself, taken by the men on the ground after they'd secured it.

"The ship was not of Colonial design and nor were the weapons that the pirates used. The pirate crew were nearly wiped out, and only three were captured by the Commando team that was sent down to rescue our people. No casualties from the civilians were reported during the operation."

A trio of pictures of the pirates in question, quite bloodied, was now shown on the screen along with several pictures of bodies and weapons.

"I dispatched Marines to secure the area and clear out any other pirate presences on the planet. Before we concluded that however we were confronted by four vessels."

A picture of a large golden triangle appeared on the screen with several silver shapes, exactly the same as the one that Cain had just showed them.

"They attempted to hail us, spoke in a language none of my people were able to understand and then began advancing towards us. I then ordered a full volley of magnetic cannons into the pyramid ship. The volley cracked through energy shields and then shattered the ship. The smaller hostiles turned and fled, Viper pursued, destroying one and disabling the other two."

One of the admirals then interrupted her.

"Admiral, you said this vessel had shields? Were they at all similar to the one we encountered before the Second Cylon War?"

"Yes sir I believe so. However, I do not believe that these people were Cylons or Cylon affiliated. No Centurions were in the wreckage, and there was not a scrap of Cylon technology to be found amongst the debris or the ship we captured intact."

"It is possible the Cylons captured the vessel we encountered before the war," Nagala responded, speaking more to the assembled brass than to Cain.

"It was then our recon Raptors on the planet encountered what we believed to be more pirates sir," Cain continued, "Our thermal scans revealed an anomaly, and the commander on the ground dispatched our commando team to investigate and neutralize any potentials threats. What they encountered we now believe to have been an Earth scientific reconnaissance team."

The assembled Admirals shifted uncomfortably in their seats. It was this information that had them worried. A picture taken from the helmet camera of one of the commandoes showed a fully armored soldier with an unmistakable circular patch on his shoulder. The Earth soldier held a SAW, and was looking right at the Colonial who was aiming his suppressed carbine at the Earther.

"Play the footage please," Cain ordered the Lieutenant.

The footage played, and they were able to hear the Colonial speak.

"Hands where I can see them!" the man ordered him.

But the camera turned and another Earther was standing, weapon aimed at the commando.

"How's it goin'?" the Earther asked with no small amount of confidence before firing with a red flash. The commando groaned as he collapsed and the image became that of the ground with several foggy images of movement in the background.

"As my report states none of our troops were killed. And aside from a broken nose there were no injuries sustained by our ground-side teams. It appears the rounds that were used against our team were of a very effective nonlethal variety that we have yet to understand."

"So the Earth unit had the ability to neutralize our operators without causing serious bodily injury?" one of the men grumbled, "And they used them despite being fired on by lethal rounds?"

"I guess we can count ourselves lucky sir," Cain responded after another helmet camera came up, showing one of the commandoes pursuing an individual Earther wearing the same armor, but didn't hold a rifle of any kind. The figure was also smaller than the two men who were clearly soldiers.

The commando pursued this female Earther, who was clearly operating in a near panicked state. She tried fumbling around with her pistol, but couldn't get it, and chose to run away instead of fight. But the Colonial was right on top of her and tackled her to the ground. She let out a scream, and the commando began trying to restrain her, fumbling with the plastic cuffs on his pack, out of frame. Another commando ran up next to them and pointed his carbine down at her head, but she continued to desperately resist. Then a red flash to his left alerted the Colonial to the fact that his partner was collapsing and then he turned and saw a standing figure of an Earther with a rifle in hand ready to fire at him. Then the screen lurched into the air, and a strange noise overpowered everything and the image went to static.

"Major Damecles was found unconscious and the team's XO broke off pursuit to guard their casualties. We never saw the Earth unit evac off of the planet, but considering their history we believe they had a cloaked vessel like the one Galactica first encountered six years ago."

"I'd say we were very lucky."

"Because from what happened next, I'd assume Earth does not want to kill anyone," Cain said calmly, although her tone was sour, "At the same this occurred, or shortly afterwards. An Earth battle group arrived in orbit in the shadow of our DRADIS systems. We didn't see them until they came around with fighters deployed and their ships in formation."

The screen changed to what appeared to be quite a few warships in formation, the space in between them glistening with fighters and gunships. One was a lot larger than the rest of its escorts, measuring in at the capital scale.

"A frakking Earth Battlestar," Nagala grumbled.

"Escorted by quite a few ships we've never seen before. It's the largest gathering of Earth forces we've seen so far."

"Yes sir, but…it's what they did that forced me to call off all operations against this groundside team and back down. You all have the transcript of the conversation that occurred shortly after. But it's what they sent right in front of my frakking face that promised us that any potential hostilities with Earth would end before they began."

Cain held up a plastic bag with a note in it. A small piece of paper with thin gray lines on it and a symbol with the silhouette of what the Colonial recognized as an Earth Battle Carrier. But this one wasn't the one they'd encountered six years ago. That ship had been alone, and named Enterprise. This one's label had the name EDFS Challenger written on it instead. The note itself was a simple quite simply.

'This could be a nuke. Brigadier General Abraham Ellis, CO.'

The message was clear enough and the Colonials knew it.

"The question ladies and gentlemen is what to do about this? We already knew we were at a tactical disadvantage against Earth warships and strategically we are limited. With this capability Earth has the ability to potentially destroy entire battlegroups and there's not a frakking thing we can do about it," Nagala fumed.

"This also doesn't add in the fact Earth's lines of interplanetary communication are literally instantaneous. That fact alone is enough to put the Fleet a step behind."

"We have to avoid provoking Earth's forces until we can find some way to counteract their tech, this transportation device in particular," his R&D chief grumbled, "We have nothing that even touches on this sort of capability, much less a counter measure against it. The best I have are our people on Choros. That facility, I'm afraid, is our most important strategic asset."

"There is some good news from there fortunately," Nagala grumbled, "Admiral Queen reported that Recon Team One has returned to base with a first-hand encounter with an advanced alien race that, according to this report, 'Has prior knowledge of the past of the Twelve Colonies and the Gods themselves. This species also possesses far superior technology to our own and seems willing to make contact with the Twelve Colonies on friendly terms.'"

"Needless to say sir we need to get on this alien's good side. We can ill-afford to make enemies out of our first alien species."

"My thoughts exactly. But these aliens, the Furlings, as they call themselves, seem to have given the RSEC the 'we'll call you' treatment. So we're just waiting for them to call us. Our first priority is to gather technology to protect ourselves from whatever else may be out there. Especially Earth and these pirates."

"Speaking of these pirates Admiral what are we planning on doing about them?"

"We're reinforcing our convoy escorts now and placing a rotating alert status amongst reserve units and Kobol's garrison is being brought to Condition Two. We'll protect our civilians and new and reclaimed colonies and then work out finding the bases these pirates are operating from and then neutralize them, permanently."

Location: Choros, Colonial Ring Security and Exploration Command

Recon One's week-long respite had come to an end. Despite an injury to one of their people that hadn't been as serious as originally believed the team was at full-strength once more. If there mission was anything more than what it was though, they would probably have lost the mission to one of the other Recon Teams.

Three days ago, as the team was resting and relaxing the team had gotten a new mission. Recon Team Three had met a human civilization with some amazing information. They'd invited the Colonials to a trade hub of a planet where they could meet all sorts of civilizations from across the galaxy. Of course the Colonials were very much looking to take them up on this offer, and Recon One, the most rested of the other teams, had gotten the job.

The team was standing in the embarkation room, with a relaxed unit of security personnel around them in their normal sentry positions. There was only a single drone present with them, a single wheeled model with a catapult launched UAV on top of it, should they need it. The inhabitants of a world called Arrera promised that they and all who visit this planet would be welcome so long as they come in peace had promised them. This wasn't to be taken at face value of course, and so they were complying with protocol. A smaller drone had been sent through earlier, revealing a pleasant surprise on the other side. This surprise was one that Dr. Beverly had been itching to see for himself as the team's cultural expert and linguist. And as the seventh chevron on the ring locked into place he and the entire team were itching to get going.

"Receiving telemetry," the speakers called out to the Colonial team of twenty-seven.

The team huddled around in groups, looking at the feeds of their officer's tablets, which were patched in as well. What they saw was truly breath taking. On this planet it was night-time, but they could still see what it was they would be walking into. A series of buildings was arranged around the ring. These buildings were well-lit by a series of hanging yellow bowl-like lanterns with a candle within, casting a clean light around the buildings. The roofs of these buildings were curled up at the corners with greenish-blue shingles to ward off the rain. Red painted wooden columns held up these roofs where a multitude of people were moving around, some looking at the ring in expectation, others continuing their own business. Many were around market stands, some in groups, and others still dragging carts with thatched roofs over them. It was a busy market-place of great wealth from what the Colonials could see.

"There's the tablet," Agent Fraser pointed out, looking at a gazebo-like structure in front of the ring.

"I see they know that it's important," Colonel Black grumbled, seeing that it wasn't just sitting there.

Two guards were there in darkly-colored metal armor with a helmet on their heads with a red feather on the top of them. The robes beneath their armor were red and baggy, and across their chests were lines of thin white bags. They each had a straight sword in a scabbard on their hips with a flintlock musket held on the ground with their right hand on the swords' hilts and their left around the barrel of their firearms. Between them was an older man in an exquisitely decorated red, green, and gold robes with his hands together and a black hat with a flowing headdress of feathers. It seemed as if he was waiting on them.

"Truly amazing, nothing in the Colonies comes to close to this style of architecture or dress," Dr. Beverly said excitedly over their shoulders as he looked at the image himself, "Agent Fraser I must get a closer look."

"I know, I want to get over there as much as you do."

"Perimeter looks clear, Colonel Black, your team is a go for this mission," Admiral Queen called out to his team on the floor below, "Gods be with you."

"Thank you sir," Colonel Black responded, snapping off a salute, "Recon One, follow me."

Grasping his carbine he checked to be sure it was ready for use along with his twenty-five millimeter underslung rocket launcher. Both weapons were locked and loaded and he stepped to the front of his team's column and buckled his helmet shortly before stepping through. In that same familiar feeling he was on the other side, and walked forward to the sounds of a commotion not unlike any other city or town market center.

There was talking, yelling by merchants, and the other miscellaneous sounds that he couldn't recognize but knew that this was where they belonged. The smell was one of many different cooking stands and grills. The air was thick with spices, perfumes, and all manner of sweet, spicy, and sour. It was rather warm, and very humid. However despite this it was remarkably comfortable, almost relaxing in a way that Colonel Black, as logical a man as there was, couldn't quite explain.

"How's this for a new world?" Fraser asked, walking up next to Colonel Black and towards the extravagantly dressed man who began walking towards them, "And welcoming party, nice change of pace."

"Compared to a desert hell yeah it is," Dr. Cruz, their tech expert, grumbled under his breath, "There might even be something for me to do aside from twiddling my thumbs."

"See those guns?" Captain Stinson chuckled, "Those are flintlocks, don't get too excited."

The group of Colonials spread out from the ring so they didn't get all clustered and prevent someone from coming through behind them and walked down the stone steps on a paved brick road. However before they could go about observing their new scenery the man in front of them came forward with two guards flanking him and a red clothed man behind him with a large book and a second equally dressed man with a quill and ink. Colonel Black, Agent Fraser, and Dr. Beverly stepped towards him after waving the military portion of the team to hold their position.

"Welcome honored guests," the man said with a large smile in highly accented standard, shocking the Colonials, "I am Min Sun."

He was quite friendly, and not at all intimidated by the heavily armed Colonial team dressed in all-black uniforms and with their helmets on in most of the cases.

"How did you…" Fraser started to ask but the man cut him off.

"Your tongue? Oh it is quite common among travelers," the man chuckled nonchalantly, as if he'd answered the question multiple times.

"And your language? Or tongue as it may be," Dr. Beverly asked politely.

"Ah explorers," the man asked, "Wonderful."

"How did you know that?" Colonel Black asked.

"Well you are certainly not traders," the man said, rubbing his thin mustache, "You are too heavily armed to be merchants, and you are curious. I've had a long time to learn of who comes and goes through the chap'ai in my duties as Receiver."

"Wait," Dr. Beverly snapped, "That word. I've heard it before. It means…Stargate."

"You have?" Colonel Black asked.

"I have, it's an ancient language, only found in one place on Gemenon, at the Artemis Delta, near the capital," Beverly said, "Intriguing. Might I ask where you heard that word?"

"During our time under the oppression of the Gou'ald that was what it was called," Min replied, "Of course we no longer live under their oppression, as you can see. We have lived for more than a decade now in complete freedom. Thanks in large measure to the Taur'i."

"The Taur'i?" Beverly asked again, "My, my, my, it, it means 'first ones'."

"What does that mean doc?" Fraser asked as Beverly started getting more and more excited.

"I shall explain later my boy, umm…Min. We're explorers from a group of people called the Twelve Colonies of Kobol. Does that name sound…familiar to you at all?"

"I'm sorry, this is the first time I have heard of, or met your people."

"Ah…quite alright then," Beverly responded, quite surprised but kept his composure calm and reserved, "The Taur'i, do you know how to contact them? We would…like to meet them."

"Of course," Min said, "They come by every so often to meet new travelers and merchants. They gave us something with which to contact them if we ever need to speak or are in dire need. I shall ask for the Taur'i to be summoned."

"Ah, wonderful," Beverly smiled brightly, "Perhaps you can help us further then?"

"I see that you have many questions my friends, I am afraid that I am not the proper authority on such matters. Perhaps you should go to the palace, I'm sure you can find the answers that you seek in our archives. Explorers are always welcome," Min said, stepping aside and pointing behind him at a tall hall with the clear signs of a large building on top of it with a large city arrayed around it, "And as explorers we would like it if you would leave your mark and how many were in your party. So that we have a record of your visit and a way to reach out to you should we see fit to speak again once you have gone."

Min waved to the two young attendants behind him and they came forward now. One opened up the book and showed them a page that was half-filled with markings and writings of many different types. There were also symbols and items next to some of them, signifying a people or individual had arrived. Next to each were a number of tick marks, showing the number of people that had arrived. Dr. Beverly took the opportunity to take the quill from the second attendant and signed his name and marked twenty-seven ticks and then pain-stakingly sketched the Colonial crest.

"Thank you. Now, might I know your names?"

"I am Doctor Victor Beverly, our translator and cultural expert. This is Agent Brian Fraser, our civilian team leader, and Colonel Henry Black our military commander."

"A pleasure sir," Fraser said, offering his hand, but Min bowed in respect before he could shake it.

"I sincerely hope you will enjoy your stay. There are many rooms where you may stay in the city's visitor quarter just this way. Each one will have a ring, like the chapa'ai, in their entryway. It is quite cheap to do so, and I recommend it. The archives are not open until morning."

With that the man stepped to the side and motioned for the team to continue on and journey into the city. Colonel Black knew they would be best to go and signaled for the team to follow him with Fraser alongside.

"Let's take a look around," Colonel Black suggested, "Split into teams and meet here in a few hours."

The Colonials moved along in a column, their heads on swivels as they took in the amazing city around them and then they noticed something. Ahead of them and even behind where the ring was situated was nothing but water and ships' lanterns out on the water or at dock. The candles and lanterns of the city ended at a piece of black where they reflected in shimmers that could only have come from water. They were on a massive stone pier jutting out more nearly a kilometer into a large harbor with a massive city arrayed around them.

"Doc, you were saying you would explain something to us about what that guy just said?" Fraser asked as he was walking alongside the man in question.

"Oh yes I was," Dr. Beverly replied, "That word, 'taur'i' it's an old and very rare language only found on Gemenon. The only times it has been used in writings have been when an age-old prophecy of some sort was being told of Kobol or Earth. Sometimes it spoke of both worlds. It's been a while since I've read it but it translates as first ones."

"We know that," Colonel Black responded.

"But it is what these first ones are said to be. Many of my colleagues believe these Taur'i to be the Lords of Kobol themselves."

"You're saying that the Lords of Kobol might still be out there?"

"It is possible. I think it all rests on if we can find out more about the Taur'i, if they do in fact exist we can perhaps prove what happened on Kobol those many centuries ago and even more importantly, find Earth itself."

"Seems like something the Lords of Kobol might happen to have written down," Colonel Black grumbled as they reached a market square in the middle of the man-made dock and caught sight of a familiar shape, "There, we might be able to bed down there for the night."

"Sounds good, we brought along some cubits, hopefully they like gold enough for us to stay until morning," Fraser agreed.

"Very well, get in there and see what you can do for us," Black ordered, "You two go with him."

Black snapped his fingers at two of his troops who nodded and followed Fraser inside and then waved Dr. Beverly over to him.

"Doc that guy said a name I recognized. He said Gou'ald. That's what that…Furling said wasn't it?"

"Yes I recognized it too Colonel. I believe that there is more that we must find out if we are to truly understand these peoples we're coming across."

"And we have to wait until morning," the Colonel growled with discontent.

"I'm afraid so."

Kobol, Tomb of Athena

The Arrow of Apollo had arrived within a few days of its recovery from its rescuers in the local law enforcement and now it was ready to be put to the test. The Battlestar Galactica, the vessel chosen to take the journey to Earth, was ready. Admiral Adama was preparing the vessel's crew and pilots in their new ship on the way to Kobol. Once they arrived the plan was for the RSEC to have a map to Earth plotted out for them to follow.

That is where the Arrow came in. The Sacred Scrolls had stated that the Arrow was the key to finding the path to Earth itself. With all that the Scrolls had stated coming true in some form or another the Colonials were not at all skeptical their prized golden trinket would somehow do the same for them in this new quest. Here were several important people, Dr. Gaius Baltar, Admiral Queen, freshly arrived from Choros, and a few other expert navigators who would be responsible for mapping the ship's course from Kobol to Earth.

"Doctor, hope you're ready," Admiral Queen said with a chuckle at seeing how uncomfortable Dr. Baltar was in the intensely cold rain of the normal Kobol weather.

They were all standing outside of the Tomb of Athena, fortified and camouflaged from outside interference by a full platoon of RSEC troops with a few portable metal buildings setup for a team of archaeologists to work in shelter and comfort and for the garrison to stay dry whenever they weren't on watch.

"For a new discovery of course. Our linguists are going over the data we recovered from Olympus but we have yet to definitively make out anything. They're saying that the language they're seeing is unlike anything found on the Colonies. I don't expect much for some time," Baltar said bitterly, huddling closely as the rain continued to come down on top of them.

"That's not what I like to hear doc," Queen chuckled wryly, knowing what pushed Baltar's buttons by now.

"Admiral I am telling you just how it is. We have no reference point with the language this data is written in. It is difficult enough to do so with normal data. At least we can start there, but just figuring out the language the machines run on is a massive obstacle."

"Just get the job done Dr. Baltar, we need whatever data that city has to offer if we're to have any chance against whoever or whatever might be out there."

"Admiral Queen," the lead archaeologist on site said brightly, "You're all set sir. We've examined the arrow one last time and have concluded how we may use it. All we need to do is…"

As the man spoke a thunderous boom roared out in the distance. It was like thunder, but way off in the distance. The civilians paid it no mind, but the soldiers around them all of a sudden went into a high state of alert. That was not no thunderclap.

"Admiral! The expedition landing site is under attack!" the platoon leader at the site yelled out.

"What?!" Queen snapped, running over to the small site headquarters, where the only radio capable of reaching the main operating base miles away was located, "Get me the base commander."

He rushed into the building, slamming the door open, paying no mind to the water he tracked into the building and ran over to where a man was leaning over the radio speaking rapidly into it. They could hear more thuds as golden lights occasionally fell from the sky way off in the distance. Firebase Royal, the RSEC's headquarters on the planet, came alive with air raid sirens wailing as the news of the attack came through to them as well.

"Sir, we've lost contact," the radioman said before Queen could order him to contact the base, "They were trying to evacuate the base when I lost them. I can't tell but they were saying they were getting hit by orbital strikes."

"Get the commander in orbit on wireless now!"

"Aye sir," the corporal replied, "Gorgon, Gorgon, this is Royal Three-One, come in over," there was a hesitation as the man waited for a reply but got none, "Gorgon, this Royal Three-One how copy…Sir I can't raise Battlestar Gorgon."

"Any Colonial ships in orbit, this Royal-Six, does anyone read me?" Queen snapped, taking a spare headset and felt his gut start turning over, but despite the broad call for someone to answer no one did, "Frak!"

"We had more than twenty ships in orbit, they can't all be destroyed," the lieutenant said quietly.

Admiral Queen looked over at the young officer angrily, and saw that he'd gone pale and his eyes were as big as saucers. The other three men in this building were in equal states, operating on instinct by now and he knew that he'd have to take command here. These troops were inexperienced and not prepared for an orbital attack, especially one that could defeat twenty Colonial warships.

"Their primary mission is to protect our civilian ships in orbit," Queen responded, trying to make sense of this without coming to the conclusion that every Colonial warship was destroyed, "They've probably decided to fall back and protect the civilians."

"They can't leave us sir! This is Kobol for frak's sake."

"I know that Lieutenant! But that doesn't matter now, what matters is that they're right here right now! Detach a squad to escort all civilians back to the Firebase Royal and get them through the ring. I'm heading back and taking command of all Colonial forces on the planet. We've got to alert Choros and get the Fleet here now. Do you have MANPAD's?"

"No sir, we've only got our small arms," the man replied, "And they won't do us any good!"

Queen grabbed the man by his Kevlar raincoat and shook him violently, not about to let panic set in.

"Get a hold of yourself Lieutenant! You will defend this position!" he roared in his face, snapping him out of it.

"Aye-aye sir," the lieutenant said with his voice shaking slightly.

"Alright, that squad escorting the civilians is to also draw MANPAD's when they arrive at Firebase Royal. Good luck Lieutenant."

With his orders given, Queen pushed open the door in time to see the civilians rushing into the Tomb of Athena. The platoon of Marines was rushing to battle positions, hefting their unguided anti-tank/anti-material rocket launchers if they had one and others started digging foxholes at the cliff's edge where they could take cover and defend the area.

Then, a loud metallic noise reached their ears. Out in the distance a group of six crescent shaped craft came banking around them, flying towards the Tomb itself. Admiral Queen about panicked at first, thinking that these craft were Earth fighters, recognizing the basic flying wing shape. But something was not quite right. Earth fighters had a more straight edged linear shape, not a smooth arching crescent and they didn't have two long protrusions coming out of the wings aiming forward. He figured out these two things were weapons when they fired at them.

"Cover!" an NCO yelled as two golden lights flew right towards them, impacting the entire area.

Explosions from plasma bolts tore into the ground, the cliff and one of the civilian buildings. The building and the ground was torn apart and shrapnel of molten glass and metal from the plasma impacts cut into several Colonial troops. The civilians ducked down immediately as the fighters passed overhead right as a missile struck one right on the wing and blew it off. With a high pitched screech the fighter tumbled over their heads and when the ground-trembling explosion reached their ears they knew that they had a chance of defending themselves at least.

The three Colonial wounded were quickly scooped up as the lone medic in the outpost had them rushed into the safety of the Tomb of Athena while more of these fighters zoomed overhead. Around them large diamond shaped craft he recognized as the ship Pegasus had captured a week ago began flying down along with smaller and much larger triangular shaped ships and descended into the valley flying overhead towards the expedition landing site and towards a much more crucial location, Olympus.

This was no raid, it was an invasion. The pirates had struck the Colonials in their most crucial and vulnerable point, Kobol.

You didn't think I'd let the Colonials have it all their own way did you? The action has only just begun and this is set to be one hell of a piece of combat for the Twelve Colonies. Man I am excited guys, and I hope you are too because I really, REALLY enjoyed writing this one. So as usual, leave me with any thoughts, suggestions, problems, etc. in a review so I may improve or address your concerns.

Next chapter Preview: The Colonials on Kobol try to rally in defense of their ancient homeworld.

Now, this is something that those of you who follow the Youtube situation know what I'm about to address and it may or may not make you unhappy with me. But I feel like I've gotta say something. An individual who goes by the name of Grade A Under A has been attacking another Youtuber, Tyrone Magnus on the allegations of copyright infringement and stealing from him and others. Tyrone responded with saying reaction videos are well within fair use policies set forth by Youtube. Personally I am on Tyrone's side. So here is a point-for-point rebuttal of Grade A's video attacking Tyrone.

Grade A claims that reactors are untalented thieves who steal videos made by others and use them in their entirety and are thus in violation of Youtube policies. This is incorrect in its entirety. Fair Use policy does not prohibit this as long as the videos are transformative, are for critique, or for review. Thus, reactors don't NEED permission, and have the right to use these videos. They don't have the RIGHT to make money, that's what a 3rd Party Claim is for.

This take me to my second point. Grade A says that Youtube's copyright system is broken and that it favors certain individual channels over others. While there is a problem with it, Youtube's not a law enforcement agency folks. It can't decide on copyright matters if it is disputed. It says so in its terms of service, it cannot take sides, and that conflicting parties will have to take it to court. Youtube's hands are tied, and that's that.

Grade A then went on to claim that reactors do nothing for the Youtube Community. I beg to differ. Most of the subscriptions I have I found because someone reacted to their stuff and brought it to my attention. He also claims that people watch the videos there first. There's not a lot to prove that one way or another aside from asking these people to show their traffic analytics I can tell you with certainty that many people I've seen get their stuff reacted to, appreciated it as, in my case and I know I'm not alone, I watch their stuff before I watch the reaction. I hit pause on Tyrone's video, click the link to the original video, watch it, and sometimes I subscribe if I liked it. THEN I watch the reaction. You see Grade A, your claim is false, quite badly false.

He also called Tyrone a liar for posting a video reacting to his allegations early on in this drama, saying he was done with it, and then posting two more. When people keep attacking you, you gotta defend yourself. Especially if you're a guy like Tyrone with a professional reputation potentially on the line. He looked at the situation Grade A was creating, and then decided he had to address that. He had to change his mind to adapt to the circumstances, simple as that.

This is a minor point, but a point I'd like to make nonetheless. Grade A claims that his viewers are older and more mature. He shows a screenshot of his age range of viewers. But I'm going blow this up for you. His graph showed hardly any younger fans, but a mysterious concentration of 18 to 25 year olds. So is it coincidence that he's got a bunch of fans of an age range that is coincidentally the age range require to view restricted content? Be honest, how many of you faked your age when you first got a Youtube account? I'd bet that would be most of you if you were below eighteen. You don't believe everything you see on the internet and especially when it comes to people's identities and ages. Anyone who knows anything knows that. Nice try Grade A, your fanbase is every bit as immature as Tyrone's and everyone else's. You're nothing special.

Now this is where I'm going to make Grade A fans pissed and I don't care. Grade A claims that Tyrone reacted to one of his videos and made money off of it. The first part Grade A has no right to dispute by Youtube policy. A reaction video, whether or not it's a very active one, or a quiet one, doesn't matter at all. If you don't say a thing and you just listen that's technically a reaction. His lack of visible reaction gives a different message like Tyrone says, his body language spoke tons. While that's up for debate as it's very subjective, I believe he's right. The message I got from him was that he was contemplating it, he was listening, and he wasn't pleased and he wasn't entertained. That was the reaction he gave. Grade A was sure happy to show perhaps one of two videos on Tyrone's channel that showed hi subdued and quiet. He also showed one of Ryan Wright from the Reel Rejects not really into the video he was reacting to. So how about the times both individuals are reacting with enormously animated expressions and are talking and really into it? Nope, can't use that because that blows Grade's argument away that reactors don't do anything for the video. And Ryan actually made a point about his own video. He reacts primarily to movie trailers and he works with different studios to react to their stuff. The reason is simple, it gives the studios an idea of what the reception will be among their target audience. It has a legitimate business purpose. If he's really into a video, that tells the studio one thing, and if he's not into it and not impressed, that tells the studio another thing. Perhaps Grade A doesn't understand that? With his argument so far I'm thinking he can't comprehend it.

Grade A claims Tyrone made money off of his video. To be specific Grade A claims that Tyrone made three hundred dollars off of his work. There's a problem with this in a big way. Another reactor channel -,' It's Becky Boop ',- reviewed Grade A's claim that Tyrone's reaction video, at three hundred thousand views, made three hundred dollars. She blew this out of the water by showing that one of her videos, with a similar number, had only earned eighty-six cents. It is also Grade A's own fault he didn't file a 3rd Party Claim, as the video was up for quite a long time.

And here's the real reason Grade A has a problem with Tyrone. It took a month or two of Grade A bitching and moaning before he filed a 3rd Party Claim. After it happened Tyrone took down the video so Grade A wasn't making anything off of it. This, understandably didn't make him happy. However he decided, instead of contacting Tyrone, he would make a big deal out of what we now know to be a few cents. Tyrone however said his reasoning for taking down the video was because Akasan, another well-known reactor, told him Grade A didn't like the fact he even reacted to it in the first place. Grade A claims that he didn't tell Akasan anything. However, Grade A told someone else on Youtube and Akasan then heard it, and then told Tyrone. Knowing the Grade A fanbase Tyrone was also getting shit from them, and so, to eliminate the strife he took down the video. Grade A's claim is that Tyrone did it to spite him. I don't think this is true in the least. Tyrone had no beef with him, he had no motivation to do so. In fact it probably hurt his channel to take it down as it was fairly hot button issue that would have garnered more traffic and thus more revenue. Tyrone also says he gets 3rd Party Claims all the time and doesn't bother to open those emails anymore. I can relate to this as a writer for this site. I get a lot of emails from them and they come with specific headings and I only open new chapter updates, PM's, and review alerts. This can be assumed, with a degree of confidence, to be the case with Tyrone. And many say "Oh it's a hell of a coincidence isn't it?" Yes it is, but much, MUCH greater coincidences have happened in history. There is one tale of a pair of merchant raiders in WW1. The SMS Cap Trafalgar was a merchant vessel outfitted with guns to raid British shipping, it was disguised, for obvious reasons as a British merchant ship, the HMS Carmania and wouldn't you know it? Carmania was chosen as a raider, and coincidentally disguised as Cap Trafalgar. What a coincidence! Even more so, both ships ran into each other early in the war. Seriously? What are the odds of a German merchant ship would be disguised as a British merchant ship that had drawn the short straw itself to become a raider? Even more so that the British ship was disguised as a German ship that had gone through the same treatment? The point I'm making here is that Tyrone's taking down of the video is more than likely nothing more than coincidence after a long time taking heat over it and then hearing the original poster didn't like it.

Then there's the mud-slinging. I've debated and argued across Youtube and I've learned one thing. He who reaches for mud, has lost. Grade A started flinging mud immediately. That's how I knew he didn't have shit even before Tyrone, Becky Boop, and Akasan threw he and his argument out the window. Maybe it's a culture thing, maybe the Brits are more liable to go for cursing than we Americans are. Nothing against our cousins across the pond, I'm just saying it's maybe a cultural difference between us, like hot tea in Britain and iced tea in America. But I doubt that what he was doing was acceptable anywhere. And to be honest Tyrone might have grounds to sue him for slander, because as I've stated, and others have stated Grade A's got nothing but assumptions and twisted words.

In conclusion, I believe I've utterly destroyed Grade A's attempted crowning achievement. He went after the reactor community and here I am to tell you he failed. Everything I have written up here will tell you that. So to really drive it in go support these reactor channels, Tyrone Magnus, Becky Boop, Akasan, Reel Rejects, etc. Maybe even buy some of their merchandise and tell them BIG Z1776 sent you. And if you made it this far thanks for reading this, I got pretty long-winded at times, so you deserve a fucking medal.