Chapter 27

Location: Pleateau Settlement, RW-23 (Colonial RSEC Planetary Designation, long hand, Ring World 23)

Date: March 6, 2025

Time: 0900

The group of Colonials had been stunned by another human being on this world and within a set of plateau ruins that clearly hadn't been lived in for some time. There were no signs of habitation, no supplies, no remnants of anything that wasn't in the centuries of years old. They were confronted with a very strange situation, but Agent Fraser had kept them busy, sending the biologists that were with him to go about their job and collect their samples for analysis. Dr. Beverly had immediately decided he wanted to speak with the strange monk who had sat down and kindly welcomed conversation. The soldiers had been told to spread out and secure the settlement and scour it for any markings or archaeological evidence to figure out who or what had once had lived here.

But Dr. Hall, or Doc for short, had been concerned. As the team's primary medical expert she was thinking that perhaps that they were hallucinating, but she was not at all convinced of this. However the thought of a lone monk that spoke their language and knew of them beforehand on a remote planet was even less likely to her scientific mind. So she was hanging around with their biologists, who were milling around and taking samples from plants that they uprooted as best they could along the open square of this settlement.

"We're actually seeing this?" Dr. Hall asked her friend Dr. Martineros as he worked on collecting samples from the nearby plants, her medical concerns coming to the fore at this situation, "I'm not…hallucinating right? I checked myself over just to be sure."

"Then why are you asking me?" Martineros asked nonchalantly as he snipped blades of the strange turquoise-blue colored grass.

"Because you're a biologist, you know some medical stuff, or else you wouldn't be here right?"

"Well, I haven't had a chance to look at the samples yet. There might be some airborne parasites, or pollens, there might not, I'll have to see later in my tests," Martineros shrugged as he looked at his new samples.

"There's also one other problem with the hallucination explanation, if we are hallucinating why are we all seeing the same thing?" the second and senior of the two biologists, Dr. Gorman, said as he walked over. He was adjusting his glasses/goggles over his eyes as he flashed his flashlight over his air sweeper, a vacuum with a filter that he ran through the air to collect airborne pollens and other particles.

"I thought about that too, but this?" she said, looking over at Dr. Beverly sitting down with Fraser next to him as they spoke with the monk, "It just doesn't seem possible."

"Well we are on an alien planet, hard to call anything impossible right now," Gorman said without much thought as he took a pair of tweezers out and pulled out a seedling that had a long spine connected to a fluffy parachute that it used to float along.

"I know, it's always the land of the unknown every time we step through," Hall sighed.

"If you're going to worry like this every time we go through the ring you'll retire with white hair," Martineros laughed.

"Don't you even tease about that!"

Meanwhile, Dr. Beverly was having a tough time trying to get anything straight out of the man that was sitting peacefully before them and was hard-pressed to interpret what he was telling him in response. The riddles were at least mentally stimulating and Beverly was challenged to an enjoyable extent. Agent Fraser was getting somewhat impatient as he sat down with a notepad and an audio recorder he was taking down notes and was trying to make sense of this monk.

"So, I may have asked this before," Beverly started, trying to get a simple answer, "Who are you exactly?"

"One of the past, one of the present, one of the future, all as one," the monk said with the most neutral tone.

"Sounds like you're saying you're…immortal?" Fraser asked.

"Or perhaps adhere to a way of life that has endured for centuries and will always endure?" Beverly asked as he analyzed the information.

The man just nodded, so that meant that one of them was right, or perhaps both of them, it was hard to tell with monk. So Beverly decided to press on after a nod from Fraser.

"This…way of life, living alone, I assume it is wonderful for meditation and achieving some sort of peace. What is it you are doing here?"

"There is no single thing so disobedient as an undisciplined mind. But there is nothing more obedient than a disciplined mind," the old man said proudly.

"Discipline? You are…achieving a kind of self-discipline?" Fraser surmised.

"To conquer oneself is a greater task than conquering others."

"That was at least straightforward."

"Indeed, we're getting somewhere," Beverly smiled in response as he nodded.

Out on the sides of the plateau was a wall that was well and truly worn and wrecked. A pair of Colonial troops, Sergeant Warren, the team sniper, and Corporal Dean. They'd thought the wall would have been much smoother and in better shape than what they were actually walking on. Pieces of mortar had worn away and crumbled from roots pushing and cracking it and small trees were growing in the cracks and pushing the stones apart. It was however a great view from here as they walked along, spaced out so they could see in many directions.

However, as they walked along the wall they saw a white glow appear off in the distance.

"Warren," Dean called out, halting mid-step and pointed out towards the glow, which was appearing off in the direction that they had come from, "See that?"

"Yeah, I see it," the sniper said in response and popped out his bipod from his modular sniper rifle and rested it on a block of stone in front of him. He then peered through his scope which went through an infrared sight in front of and against the main scope, "I can't see the source but there's something out by the ring."

"That glow looks the same as the ring's own light doesn't it?" she responded.

"Question is who's coming through?" Warren asked, looking at Dean who furrowed her brow as she thought and didn't like what came to mind.

"Dean to CO," Corporal Dean said quickly into the radio.

"CO here, hope this is good," Colonel Black quickly responded.

"Sir I think we have an activation at the ring. We have eyes on a matching color glow on the horizon."

"We'll check it with the rover camera," Black replied quickly and the line went dead as Dean slowly went to a knee next to the wall.

"Something tells me we've got some company," she said to Warren.

Recon One, Team Two

Colonel Black, having been dealing with trying to come to terms with his own strange phenomenon's in front of him in the form a field of fairies and a strange young girl that could appear from seemingly nowhere. He'd had to get his team under control and back to task as he himself with Dr. Deckero trying to speak with the strange girl. They'd had the devil's time trying to figure out the riddles that she gave for her answers to very simple questions. And when they weren't getting a riddle they were getting vague answers. This meant that they had themselves a tough time trying to figure out answers and which questions in return.

Now Colonel Black had a much simpler problem, the ring had activated and they needed to figure out what it was. He pulled out a connected and well-insulated and protected datapad and turned it on. He waited and connected with the rover, and saw that the camera was giving him a picture of a glow that signaled to him that the ring was indeed activated. He hit the button on the screen to get the camera to swivel and saw a group of black silhouettes with staffs and bulbous ends he knew what he was seeing. These were the same faction of people that had attacked Olympus. He recognized the markings on the screen as they came to the rover and examined it and began messing with it.

"We've got trouble, our friends from Kobol decided to pay a visit here," he called out.

"Impossible, the odds of being dialed into the same world are in the millions to one!" Dr. Cruzii countered, unwilling to believe this information.

"Yeah well tell that to them!" Black responded, "We need to link up with the rest of the team. Lock and load!"

"Everyone stop what you're doing and join up, we see 'em we shoot 'em Colonel?" Captain Fredericks asked as the squad formed up.

"No, we've got the civilians to get through first and foremost. But, if they so much as breathe towards you in the wrong way light 'em up."

They noticed that the girl who'd they'd been dealing with had been listening intently and now stood right next to them.

"What about her?" Dr. Wimmera asked, concerned for the girl.

"You can come with us, we can protect you," Colonel Black told her, kneeling down in front of the girl. But she just cocked her head and smiled.

"No one can save us but ourselves. No one else can and no one may," she responded with the same trivial calmness that she'd had all along.

When she finished she turned and walked through the tall grass and was soon to the edge of the forest and turned around. She smiled to the Colonials and waved with a bright smile on her face. Then as she entered and disappeared a bright white light shined from the forest and the forest went still once again. The group of Colonials shined their flashlights in curiosity and were unable to figure out just what was happening here.

"There's definitely something very strange about this place."

"Whatever it is about this place we're not going to find out right now, let's get together with the rest of the team," Colonel Black said as he looked out over the distance and knew that they would need to get through the thick forest, "Team Two, send up a lasso. We need a beacon to close on."

"Roger that, lasso up now."

The military members flipped down their night vision goggles and looked around and saw the infrared laser pointed up into the sky and moving around in a circle. With that in front of them the Colonials began moving out in line. As they did that the strange glowing creatures that they'd been watching earlier reemerged from the shadows of the forest and came to the edge of the fields. They all watched the group of Colonials walking towards the forest edge away from them and they all knew what was happening. It was a continuing occurrence that they'd come to be used to. The Colonials were a new wrinkle in this, and their well-tuned instincts told them conflict was inevitable if their latest hunters came face to face with the team of explorers.

Speaking to one another in their own mental language four of their number zipped away, and followed the Colonials. They were unsure if they could truly trust the Colonials and trailed them out of sight, sticking to the trees as the team blazed its own trail but had to keep their trail hidden, lest the enemy were coming behind them. Indeed they were, the woods glowed orange as the light from torches pierced the gloom of the night. The jingling of chain mail greeted the ears of the "fairies" and they scattered into the forest as the yellow tunics and shimmering iron armor and helmets came riding in on horses with all but the leader and standard bearer holding Ori Staff Weapons as infantry came in behind with Jaffa Staff Weapons. There were more than a hundred infantry and thirty cavalrymen that came riding in.

They were here on a mission, the net guns that many of them held were clear signs of what they were there for. The leader, a yellow caped man with a faceplate on his helmet on a hinge held up looked around as he waved his men forward. First among them were a few leather armored soldiers with hoods of their heads and yellow tunics with Zat Guns on their wrists. They spread out in a line, searching the grasses for their illusive prey. In their hands were primitive net casting guns, made specifically for catching airborne prey. However, they found something else in the tall grasses, a trail, or rather, a set of trails not made by their quarry.

"Sire!" one of the scouts called out, kneeling down as he placed a torch near the ground and saw the shadows casting from the imprints of the boot tread pattern in the soft dirt he examined, "Fresh tracks, someone was just in this field."

"Where did they go?" the captain on the horse called out.

"Through here!" another scout proclaimed as he found the trail off to the left of the main field where the Colonials had left trampled grass into the tree line.

"Twenty men, stay here and continue the hunt! Catch as many of those creatures as you can! Each is worth more gold than you are. The rest of you follow me, let us find these poachers."

He quickly spurred on his horse and the group began marching out at a gallop as ten of the scouts moved into the forest to pursue the trail with the cavalry lagging behind as their riders dismounted and their infantry marched past them. They were a rather unwieldly column, with horses in the rear and a long line of infantry in front with many of them spread out with torches illuminating the path forward. They spread out, with the cavalrymen walking their horses forward one behind another to protect their animals' fragile ankles from breaking in the dense ferns in the underbrush. But they made progress quickly because of the clean nature of the undergrowth. However they were tracking, and tracking meant that they were slowed already, whereas their prey continued on unabated without such hindrances.

Executive Compound, Caprica City, Caprica

The complex where the Executive Branch of the Colonial government was located was a large one. Its primary duty was housing the offices and meeting rooms and secure passages, communications and press rooms, command and control centers of several types for many civilian projects and responsibilities. There were more than a dozen large buildings of varying styles from antique to ultra-modern. It was so big it had its own dedicated police department and some of the facility had dorms and hotels for housing its full-time employees and guests and reporters. The well-manicured grounds were a who's who of Colonial society, and were the chief center of power of the Colonials' government short of the Presidential Estate on the more secure outskirts of the city.

The Vice President's offices were here, as were the varying members of the President's Cabinet. The civilian government was located here, and only meagre necessary presences from the other branches of government, the Judicial and Legislative, were here. This was a safety measure to insure the survival of the Colonial government should the worst happen to one planet. Gemenon had the distinction of being the seat of power for the Legislative Branch, Aerilon was the seat of power for the Judicial Branch. And separate from all of that but far better suited to remaining operational should its hierarchy be decapitated, was the Fleet on Picon and the Army on Tauron. But each planet had was its own self-controlling and independent command, able to fend for itself in times of conflict should it be cut off from the rest of the Colonies. The civilian government had no such fool-proof fail-safes.

All it had was the hidden member of the cabinet and the independent planetary governments with protocols in place to quickly replace the government's functions with their own should all three branches be annihilated. Then rebuilding would commence under martial law if unrest of any kind occurred. The most likely time when the possibility of such an event might actually happen was Colonial Day. The Colonies had indeed had scares, bombings, shootings, and other such attacks had claimed a few lives of some top officials and many civilians. But never had the government been absolutely beheaded. It was simply seen as being far too large for it to occur and security far too tight to allow the means necessary to do it to get anywhere close. In fact an attack had not happened since the outbreak of the Cylon War, and people now saw it as a festive holiday to be enjoyed, not feared for what may happen.

This festivity and circumstance was why Laura Roslin was at the Executive Complex, overseeing the preparations personally now that school was over hers was the traditional cabinet post overseeing the preparations. She came over in her standard car, aide in the seat next to her and single security car leading her to the complex with another car with a couple more aides in behind. Her small motorcade passed through the heavily secure front gate and passed into the exclusive underground garage for VIP vehicles. Security had been heightened ever since the second war and the unrest on Sagitarron, she now had eight rather than the usual four guards. But they were more for show and frequently just got in the way and frightened the schoolchildren she loved to visit as part of her duties.

When they came through they came through the VIP entrance, a secured unobstructed portion of the Executive Compound. Here the several hundred protestors couldn't get to them to threaten important member of the government. But average workers had to get through the protests first hand. The many police from the compound and Caprica City were always making arrests for attacking and damaging cars that came through and the protestors continued their rants of government incompetence and corruption. But even before the Earth controversy there had always been protests, but never so often and never so large.

"We're a few days away now," her aide/assistant Billy Keikeya said as she made it into her office, "Preparations are almost complete, it's just a matter of dotting I's and crossing T's."

"It'll be an interesting Colonial Day, ever since Earth was found these days have been seeing some real trouble, protestors and whatnot," another of her aides commented.

"That's why we have security, and frankly I don't know if we didn't have some of the animosity coming the way we acted with Earth," Roslin said as she sat down.

"The Quorum hasn't had an improvement in their approval ratings since then," Billy smirked, he himself harboring a firm belief that the Quorum was to blame and deserved their predicament as the most hated piece of Colonial politics right now.

"The protests outside don't say that we have any better an approval among the people."

"No, but fretting over it won't change it, come on, let's see what we have left today," Roslin pleasantly said, smiling broadly to instill her teacher's confidence.

"Yes madam Secetary," Billy said as he pulled out the appropriate files, "Start from top to bottom, fill in the spaces as we see them."

"Sounds right."

"We start with floats and schools, that'll go along the usual route, marching bands spaced out so they don't drown one another out," Billy started, "Then we have the civilian groups who have registered a spot. They're spaced about between ancient historical societies, modern ones, and in between. The numerous boys and girls groups, y'know the ones that go out camping and such. Then we have dancers, bands, and artisanal floats. Lastly is the military."

"Unfortunately that's what people are always there to see."

"The Army has tasked an armored regiment and an infantry division for the march and the Marines have an infantry regiment. The Fleet will have a Marinestar and some Vipers and Raptors do formation flybys over the city. The wet Navy has a dozen ships parked offshore and some at dock for tours. All counted, two hundred and fifty thousand people in the parade, two thousand vehicles, and a crowd numbering over five million. And for security…twenty-five thousand police and five thousand Colonial Government Protection Agents with another twenty thousand plus soldiers and Marines right in the middle of it all."

"Sounds about on par for what we did last year," Roslin nodded, satisfied with the way things were going, "And we have the TV line up for the latest documentaries on the Colonies?"

"Including one three-parter on everything we did with Earth and a three par reality show about Kobol shot on Kobol, done by Frank Eristotle, he did the documentary about the Sagittaron terror attacks before the Cylon War," Billy reminded her, "So we can expect some stirring of the pot from that Earth documentary."

"Of course," Roslin nodded, "Oh, have we gotten our numbers from the high school graduation stats in yet? We've been expecting some improvements since the strike ended."

"Yes ma'am…" another aide said as she dug through her briefcase, "Yes, this is it. And improvement is what we are seeing across the board, but the rate of improvement on Sagittaron, Aquarius, and Caprica has dropped noticeably and the college graduate rates are still stagnating and cost reporting per semester is still climbing."

"Outrageous cost in higher education has been a problem for three hundred years on every colony…" Roslin sighed, the great public issue of her office now rearing its head, "And by the looks of it we should almost call this the status quo."

"Well it's costing each student around twelve thousand credits on average per semester. I'm not sure people will accept that," Billy shrugged, "I'm still paying off my loans."

"We'll just have to do something about that won't we?"

And so the day continued, the same old problems that Laura Roslin wanted to fix, but found that the rigorous red tape of government and the tempermental media and parents she dealt with always against every plan no matter what. Such was the labor of office. And this was why she'd settled on taking up a principle's job on one of the new colonies when her term was up and after she'd gone through her chemo. The weakness of the early treatments were already starting to plague her. Work was stacking up and she wasn't entirely certain she was going to make the remaining year before Adar's third term was up. But for his sake, and her own she would persevere. Besides, she sort of knew she could just go out smiling in front of children in schools for a few hours and then return home or the doctor's and the office and situation would be the same as a day of work.

Presidential Estate, Caprica

President Richard Adar had no such illusions about his own office. He had a guilty love affair with the office of President. He treasured the prestige, the responsibility, the power to an extent. He'd always been looked down upon as a rising junior politician and that had stung him. But here and now he was the one looking down and having the lives and careers of many of the same arrogant bureaucrats in his hands.

His three terms had taken a toll unfortunately. He was an old shadow of his former self when he had entered the office and the problems of Earth had been the worst to cross his attention. Initial speculation had placed him at the top of Colonial Presidents for being the man to bring the thirteenth colony back into the fold and his name would be remembered with reverence. But now, with Earth effectively gone and almost openly hostile at times he wasn't sure if he would be known as the president who drove Earth away for good. But he could still make his mark by creating a whole new era of prosperity through whole new colonization efforts.

And in this goal he was told things were going well. Of the original outer colonies that had been established, all of them were now reclaimed. Then there were almost two dozen more planets that the Colonials were sending colonists out to claim as their own. Some were charted previously, but many of them were charted by the Kobol expedition and charted for waystations for ships going to and from Kobol. Some of them had their own previous signs of civilization and were of a variety of terrains and environments that were well suited for colonization and others had zones that habitation was not recommended or even possible to an extent. But the basic idea that Adar would leave as his legacy was that when he had come into office they were the Twelve Colonies with an existential threat but now they were now twelve homeworlds and their thirty-two colonies. They had enough space on those new planets for over two hundred billion souls in the future. In fact Earth would be the exception to a successful presidency full of ever-lasting impact on the future.

"Mister President," his secretary outside his office informed him, "Your twelve o'clock appointment has arrived, Mr. Abirron from the Committee Investigation into the Handling of the Earth Situation."

"Oh excellent," he nodded, "Send him in please."

"Yes Mr. President."

The door into the office opened up and the middle aged career politician and analyst came in along with a Presidential Guard. With a shake of the hand and a kind greeting the two men got to work as a secured suitcase was opened and the papers and pictures inside were placed on the coffee table in behind the chairs that faced his desk. The two men sat down and got to work on something that Adar had been looking forward to for several days.

Mr. Abirron had been briefed in on what had happened on Kobol as part of the committee's investigation over everything having to do with Earth. He was now here to give his analysis and his recommendations for how to reestablish relations with Earth and achieve Colonial goals. It was no simple task, that much was for certain.

"Well Mr. Abirron, let's hear it," Adar started off.

"Right Mr. President, we've been going over everything to best of our ability and I will say one thing for certain about Earth. They have a vested interest in Olympus. Perhaps not us per se, but Olympus is definitely important to them," Abirron said, rubbing his eyes beneath his glasses, which were red from lack of sleep.

"Which explains them sending troops to defend it," Adar correctly surmised.

"But there's a definite debate over whether Kobol as a whole is their overall main objective. My thought is that if Kobol was as important to them as it is to us I'd say that they would have sent a larger fleet and would have sent it sooner. The reason I also think that is that from our previous analysis Earth simply doesn't believe in the Lords of Kobol. Plain and simple I think they think they are the genuine homeworld of Humanity and think that we the Colonies are just some human populations cast out from Kobol, nothing special or divine about it."

"Hmm…you know that will ruffle a lot of feathers," Adar reminded Abirron.

"I know, and it has already. There's another thought pattern among some more conservative people on the committee that Earth simply fears us and wants nothing to do with us for fear of conflict," Abirron responded with a shrug, "But they're just sour, very sour, over what happened with the whole of the Quorum seemingly about to get voted out of office after the revelations a month or so ago. They're looking for someone to blame that isn't related to their political allies."

"Then we'll ignore them. So, we just need to figure out what Earth wants?"

"That's the key isn't it? I tell you, it's a tough key to find. My recommendation is to make strides in how we treat Earth, preferably as equals, not an equal colony, but an equal independent government. I say that's the best way to get things going the way they need to if we want something out of this," the man suggested.

"A bitter pill to swallow for some, but go on."

"Then, we offer trade, pure and simple. That is simply the best way to get things flowing as far good feelings. We are a big market, we have an increased demand for most every type of good, and Earth's economy wouldn't be adversely effected if we offered an open market in which they can sell. Money speaks its own diplomatic language, we need to use that," Abirron said with a nod, "And never ever say anything about Earth giving up its independence. That is the fastest way to scare them off."

"And what stands in the way of us being able to do that?"

"Well, there's the trouble of interplanetary travel of civilians and regulation and tariffs on goods, and chiefly Earth predictable unwillingness to allow for customs searches of their ships. Our security and customs officials will be hopping mad if we allow them to ship without safety and security measures on our end. There's also monetary exchange rates to be considered, for that we'll need detailed knowledge of Earth's own economy which we do not have," he said shaking his head.

"And then there's Earth's own location for us to send our own goods, because we can't just allow Earth to product dump and drive our local businesses and corporations to drive their prices up or shutter completely long term," Adar nodded.

"They've been mum on that, not a peep from them ever came up in regards to revealing their homeworld's location during any of our negotiations. So we need definitely need that for any sort of trade negotiations."

"And then there's the object of a potential hostile human element. Earth seems to be hostile to them as well so we can possibly arrange anti-piracy intelligence sharing policies. I think our ships are more vulnerable than theirs are and they should have a high regard for human life like we do," Adar nodded.

"I'm not sure about that, we have no idea what Earth's own policies are and if that was even a real pirate or just an Earth rogue group."

"No, the RSEC has been adamant that there's more human habitation out there than just Earth. Their hypothesis is that ships coming from Kobol stopped early or had to stop or got separated during the Exodus and established themselves. Other worlds are being classed as colonies from Kobol's own Ring. So there's no telling how many human worlds are out there," Adar informed him, reminding him on some of the RSEC's own semi-declassified information that was being allowed for the use of high clearance officials to analyze and prepare measures for security and planning for potential scenarios.

"This is something else that troubles me. I was raised to believe what the scrolls say, just like most Colonials," Abirron sighed, concern in his voice, "But…the RSEC is saying things that don't match with what we know. Is it possible we don't know the full story of our own past?"

"Earth seemed to be very adamant about that belief. But we can't say that, we're politicians, we need votes, we need public approval."

"Earth doesn't. Frankly I don't that Earth really cares what we think," Abirron advised, very firm in his estimate.

"And we get to it, will Earth cause internal disturbance in our society?"

"I hope not, but I think it is likely that they will offend a lot of people on the more conservative planets like Gemenon and in the Quorum," Abirron said after a moment, "Their reactions…could be as harmless as mere protests or as major riots and economic boycotts. It's hard to tell for certain."

"That's the reality of Earth isn't it? We just don't know enough. We need to know more, and we need to know more now," Adar groaned.

"If you can get me more on Earth I can get you more definitive answers," Abirron shrugged.

"I'll have to see what we can do in the meantime. RSEC might have something coming down the line for us to do just that."

Orbit over the Planet Frencalis

The lone Colonial research and surveying ship arrived in high orbit over the habitable planet without much pomp or circumstance. It was a distance cruiser, a thick oval-shaped glass dome in the middle of the ship allowed for a series of rotating vertical farm racks to supply the ship's student and faculty crew. These university research ships were increasing in number and were making their universities a lot of money by surveying planets for the government and mining and colonization firms.

The ship itself was built simply, with the glass botanical garden being complimented by another smaller one behind the lofted bridge for scientific purposes. The hull was shaped remarkably like a warship's own hull, but with a long nacelle connected by strong columns like the hangar pods on a Battlestar. In this section laboratories and were located and the front of this thinner lower hull jutted out in front in a flat dish-like chin that was where the sensitive surveying and imaging equipment was housed. The sides of this hull bulged out in detachable box-like sections and a central enlarged section that connected with the ship at the same mid-point as the bridge. Two separate engine nacelles with three decent-sized glowing blue engines were housed and both nacelles connected to the reactor and FTL that ran perpendicular of the rectangular prism-like upper hull. The ship was unarmed, and unarmored, with its nose being a retractable door that led into the small hangar for the ship.

Colored a crisp blue with a neon green stripe running down the side, the five hundred meter long ship named the Eysee Wendall, was the property of Hedon State University. Named after the principle of the university that had rebuilt the university after Leonis had been bombed heavily by some of the other colonies in a devastating civil war, the ship was here for the purpose of surveying the planet Frencalis and see if it was a potential candidate for colonization. Free of military escort the ship had arrived without being told the sensitive information that the planet they were over was inhabited. These students and professors were not to blame, they didn't know, and were incredibly eager to have an island named after themselves or a girlfriend or boyfriend back at the university.

"We're entering orbit over the planet," the captain said over the loudspeaker from his seat in the bridge, looking off to his right as the ship settled into orbit thanks to his professional hired crew, "Take a good look."

Across the ship the students saw the vast continent beneath them dotted with lakes and covered with grassy plains and snowcapped peaks to the north of them. Forests were visible along the coast to the east, fed by rains trapped by a mountain range. But here, they also saw something on their scanners. Something odd that hadn't been anticipated. It was first noticed by students in the starboard observatory room with powerful telescopes looking down at the planet.

"Professor Nikias, was this planet ever a colony?" a student called out as he looked through his telescope.

"No, we're the first people to see it except for a military patrol I'd assume," the professor responded as he looked down at the northern mountains through his own electronic telescope feeding a computer screen.

"Well I think I'm looking at a city doctor."

Immediately the students and other professors began murmuring and asking where the student was looking. And soon, everyone was seeing it. On the professor's screen, after zeroing in on the location he saw a series of over a dozen skyscrapers piercing the sky on the east coast of the continent below them with a large suburban zone outside of it. Through the telescope they could make out the yards and details on houses, the markings on ships, the twinkling of cars on roads and a couple highways, and the larger image of a plane that zoomed through the picture at one point. The Colonial ship was soon abuzz with this activity, and so was someone else.

Jaran Military Observatory, Northern Mountains, Frencalis

"Sir we have a radar contact in low orbit," the female controller on her lonesome dawn watch called out as she yawned after calling out the contact. She was thinking it to be another fluke, but then she took another look at her bulky screen, turning a few dials, "Wait a minute, you're no asteroid…" she mumbled and then clicked the microphone button for the bulky speaker on her desk, "Captain I'd like permission to swing another of my radars to verify contact."

"You have permission, we're moving a telescope to get visual confirmation now," came the response from her superior who was more alert than she had been initially.

"Roger that sir."

The woman clicked her electric warm-up button to get power to one of the massive radar dishes built there as a scientific method of detecting Wverran rockets that were being chucked into orbit to try and get a satellite into orbit before her own people. So far none had successfully achieved this goal, but every couple weeks their new peacetime rival tried again, and things got interesting. Here on this cold thin-air mountaintop the plateau was a base with a large line of raised and very powerful radar dished constantly needing to be cleared of snow and ice. The groupings of buildings were home soldiers from the Jaran Air Force and a few scientists who had already been here with a few civilian telescopes.

One of the metal dishes swiveled and sent its powerful radar waves out into orbit, and the image on the appropriately numbered screen in her stove-warmed room let her know that this was definitely no fluke. A telescope now moved upwards, and looked towards the object itself. In the early pre-dawn light they did see something, and the blurry image, right before the light blinded the telescope, was photographed and the captain of the watch gasped aloud when he saw it.

Without hesitation he ran to his commander's building as armed guards patrolled the snow covered ground. He burst in, demanding to see the general. The General was already awake, having been awoken by what could have been a bladder infection because of his constant need to urinate at all hours. His sour sleep-deprived mood was changed when he saw his subordinate shoving a picture of a ship in his hands.

"Sir, it's the real deal, we have confirmed radar contact on two dishes, and visual contact."

"Do a full sky sweep, see if it's alone, I need to make a call."

Just like that the Jaran military began to awake to the ship over their heads. With only a few select individuals knowing what was going on the soldiers and airmen and sailors were told they were mobilizing as part of a drill. Their allies were equally informed and equally mobilized in turn. They knew what could be up there. The incident during the war involving extraterrestrial visitors being shot down had led to numerous measures being taken by the Jarans. Included in their preparations had been digging up their Stargate, and the creation of a command center for utilizing it in case they needed to call upon a past visitor, the Taur'i.

But this was a last ditch measure. Their military advancements included weapons of mass destruction, uranium infused nuclear weapons on rockets capable of reaching out several hundred miles. Jet propulsion had created a new generation of aviation with gleaming aluminum cannon-armed jets being the norm for the Jarans. Powerful new tanks and armored vehicles and lighter, faster, and longer ranged firearms were in the hands of their soldiers. And their people were in a state of euphoria having defeated a life-long enemy. The Jarans were firm in their belief that they could handle themselves, and the small underground facility in the emptiness of the tundra in the Jaran North was still just a secondary facility. It would take something major for them to use the Stargate.

But the Colonials had never been known for being subtle.

Well, I think I can end there. Sorry for the delay guys I'd really gotten on a hot streak with another of my stories. I'd actually tried writing an update to this last weekend, but I just couldn't get going. Then something hit me when I watched Independence Day and I knew what was going to happen in this story that would set an interesting stage for us to witness. Again, sorry for the delay, I'll try harder to get updates but we're getting to a point where I have to be very careful with what I do here.

As per usual, let me know your thoughts, all of them are appreciated.

Next Chapter Preview: Earth meets another of the rising war lords seeking their own shot at power.