The office of the President of the Colonies was never a dull place, no matter the time of year. During Armistice Day celebrations the President was expected to give a rousing, patriotic speech about the cost of freedom and the brave sacrifices of the nascent Colonial Military in defense of the Colonies etc etc. It was a yearly tradition and all presidential traditions were as sacrosanct as the Scrolls. So whenever a president missed his speech it was blood in the water that started a media feeding frenzy of speculation on what could possibly keeping the president.

It was something that was niggling at Richard Adar after the initial rush of discovering that the Cylons had returned and brought friends, who were demanding that the Colonies account for crimes that they had no idea they'd had been committed. As he and a special council of advisors assembled to address this crisis sat down in his office barely seven hours later, a small part of him opined in dark humor that at least he wasn't going to be remembered for the Aerilon Massacre anymore.

"Alright, ladies and gentlemen," he addressed the small council gathered around his desk. "Peter, we'll start with you first. What the status of our Fleet?"

Fleet Admiral Peter R. Corman was a long serving veteran from the Cylon War from Aquaria. One of the many lifers that made up the backbone of the officer corp who has stayed on after the war to serve the new United Colonies. In the forty years since Armistice was declared he had served as the commander of battlestar groups and at one point the commanding admiral of one of the Navy's four fleets. His career was one that had spawned a mini-documentary in-of-itself and several "star rolls" in others focused on the fleet and the War, a self-written autobiography that had dominated the top sellers charts when released, and gods only know how many anti-piracy actions or cylon jump scars over the decades. With these and a cool, determined mind it was no surprise that he had been chosen to be the chairman of the Unified Defense Command, beating out the legendary Admiral Nagala only because she was determined never to be trapped behind a desk.

"Our Fleet is secure, Mister President. All of our patrol units have been pulled to the Colonies and strategic assets in the surrounding systems. As far as the battle group commanders are concerned this is another Armistice Day Panic. Only the Admiralty and the Army-Marine Generals directly serving in UDC HQ are aware of the true situation."

"What about our anti-orbital defenses."

"The Zeus System on all worlds are prepared for a crash start if ordered. The Strategic Missile Corps has mobilized as well and dispersed. As far as they know this is just a Panic as well. Unless you order a full war footing or the Cylons come pouring over the border, we're secured as can be."

Adar nodded his acknowledgement. He turned to a small woman who looked like she was yanked out of a grade school classroom. "Melissa, what about our internal security?"

Melissa Brady was the most unassuming woman you could find. Barely five foot three with a face that was pretty enough but otherwise unremarkable, with black hair in a short bobby cut and a pair of inexpensive spectacles. You'd never expect her to be a veteran spy and analyst for the Ministry of Intelligence, who had destroyed dozens of terrorists plots and insurrectionist movements before they could even be worth noting by the most paranoid scare mongers. Yet she was, and she was the best in the business.

"Forensics teams have scavenged Armistice Station for every skin cell and hair follicle. DNA testing confirms that the Cylon Biological Model, self-designated Tamara, is genetically human. The alien she brought with her has also been confirmed to be what it seems. Analysts from the Ministry of Science, Biological Department confirm that the self-declared Lord of Admirals is indeed an alien descended from a creature that is not of the Colonies, but does have some common and superficial similarities to native vulpine species. They are convinced that both are the genuine article, but cannot make a definite claim in good conscious without an anatomical examination, and if possible an autopsy of a deceased alien body."

"Good. Now, what about this Tamara woman?"

"We've consulted with the national registry and census records dating back as far as the Cylon War. This 'Tamara' woman does not exist in the Colonies and as far as we can tell never did. What we have found is two women who bear eerily similarities to her, compared to the sketches done by MoI artists based on Colonel Wakefield's testimony, that were at one point highly placed in the Colonial Military."

Two photos were taken from a briefcase at Melissa's side and passed to the President. One was of a stick-thin supermodel with bleach blonde hair wearing an expensive fur coat walking through the Riverwalk in the arms of Doctor Gaius Baltar. The second photo contained the exact same woman, except with natural, dirty blonde hair, wearing the uniform of a civilian contractor working for the Colonial Fleet.

"The woman in the second photo is Gina Inviere, a network engineer working for Integral Systems Engineering. ISE was the company contracted to upgrade our military's computers with the Command Navigation Program. She was assigned to upgrade the Battlestar Pegasus, under the command of Vice Admiral Helena Cain, who has admitted to having a sexual relationship with this woman. Apparantly they met during the CNP proposal to the Admiralty and they hit it off. The woman in the first is Natasi Raines. She is an independent software developer who is essentially a nobody except for the fact that she was having regular sexual liaisons with Doctor Gaius Baltar, former head of the CNP program. These women have no relation through family, and they both disappeared nearly the exact same time about three months ago.

"The Ministry of Intelligence was already investigating Gina's disappearance when this Tamara problem came across our desk. Our handlers keeping an eye Doctor Baltar had no reason to suspect Natasi's sudden disappearance as foul play. Once we ran Tamara's face and found she has dopplegangers in high places, we started digging. My best agents are currently investigating their listed residences and their known associates. It's still underway, sir, but enough evidence has been gathered to make it highly probable that Natasi Raines and Gina Inviere were Cylon bio-models working undercover, likely working to undermine Colonial defenses. I've got my software people running ragged checking every byte that's been introduced into our military computers since the CNP program was first broached as a possibility. My people are are also checking every face related to vital military projects or high ranking personnel for more Cylon agents."

Melissa took a deep breath before continuing. "Mister President, I say without reservation this is the worst security breach in Colonial history, and it happened on my watch. You'll have my resignation before dinner, sir."

The rest of the present advisers cast looks at the spymaster. Some were sympathetic and others were accusatory. All were glad it wasn't their necks in the noose. Adar himself counted to ten in his head before replying.

"If this was any other situation on any other day, I would accept it in a heartbeat," Adar declared. "On this day, everything we thought we knew is being tossed out of the window. Until I have hard proof that you were directly responsible for these Cylons being able to penetrate our defenses, I expect you to hold on to that letter and hunt these…. These skin jobs and smoke out any more sleeper agents."

Melissa nodded. "Thank you, mister President."

"Now then. On to the mystery box. I assume it's been decoded and examined?"

"Yes it has, Sir," Melissa nodded again. "It was a database containing cultural and historical about the Concordance and it's member species. It also contains some information related to the current strategic situation on the war."

"Alright. Let's hear the tactical information first. How are they doing?"

Melissa nodded at Corman, who took over. "The Concordance's situation is tenuous but not desperate. As the Lord of Admirals' said, they overwhelmed the border defenses and patrols in short order with a large fleet of basestars with overwhelming fighter support. They overran the Concordance member on their border and made a rush for the capital of the Concordance: Alkran's Cradle. which is the homeworld of the Lord of Admirals' species. However the orbital defenses held and the Cylons were pushed back with heavy fighter and baseship casualties, at the cost of most of their mainline fleets.

"The Concordance is currently fighting a defensive war while trying to find cylon targets to strike. It seems they're suffering the same problems as we have to planning potential counteroffensives. The Cylon kept their borders closed and the Concordance either dont have stealth ships or didn't have enough time to recon their worlds. Either way, they're stuck behind their borders trying to find a target to strike while the Cylons are still throwing spoiling attacks that keep them pinned to their vital infrastructure. It's most likely that the Tammies have helped them find targets to strike, but it's probably not enough if they're coming to us for help."

"Well if we are considering helping them, what kind of people are they?" Adar asked.

Melissa pulled several thick packets out of the briefcase at her side and passed them around. "These files are essentially straight copies from the box. I'll give you the appreciated version. The Concordance of Stars and Species is not as vast as its name implied. It consists of three main species with several protectorates, mostly worlds that have not discovered space travel or even basic industrial technologies. The three main empires are the Alkran's Sovereignty, the Hassari Democratic Union, and the Pheldain Empire.

"The Alkran's Sovereignty is the largest of the three, and the home empire of the Lord of Admirals. They are are a theocratic, elective monarchy, with the head of state officially being the Alkran, who is the god who the Alkrani worship as the creator of the universe. In his place rules the Steward, who is elected from among the highest ranking clergy for life. Acting as his right-hand is any array of Executors, who are seen as the Steward's proteges and one of them will be elected to the Stewardship next. The current and most widely held interpretation of their religious text is that all species are spiritual brothers and sisters, and are more interested in mutual prosperity than individual gain. Despite that they possess the largest standing military, most of it in the space forces."

"Warriors lead by pacifists. No wonder they're losing," Corman muttered.

Adar ignored that comment, musing, "So it doesn't sound like we're dealing with a military junta. And yet they sent their supreme commander to insult us into helping them. Talk about alien."

Melissa raised her hand slightly. "Actually, I don't think that this encounter was an official one. There are enough similarities between Colonial and Alkrani that this was likely an act of insubordination. It's possible that the Lord of Admirals was working under his own initiative, likely abetted and encouraged by the Tammies. I would be surprised if they didn't have some ulterior motive."

Adar gave a dark, mirthless chuckle, noting sardonically, "I thought that First Contact was supposed to some grand, enlightening event. What about the rest of them?"

"The Hassari Democratic Union," Melissa continued. "The Hassari are an avian-descended species and the middle child of the Big Three. Their government and society are a little more straightforward. The government is an indirect democracy where representatives are elected to positions in the civilian government, with the head of state being analogous to our Presidency, excepted called the First Citizen. Due to the nature of their homeworld's biology, they are adverse to Hassari-on-Hassari violence and were able to achieve a unified government fairly early on. As a result most of their military is limited to peacekeeping forces and patrol fleets. They were completely overwhelmed by the Cylons and their major worlds have been occupied. The remaining outposts and developing colonies surrendered soon, after the government surrendered unconditionally."

"How many worlds does the Concordance have?" Adar asked.

"Seventeen. Of those only twelve are of strategic importance. Four Alkrani, five Hassari, and three Pheldain."

"And who are the Pheldain? Snails that learned how to walk and see themselves are the superior beings of the universe?"

"The Pheldain are amphibianoids, evolving from a creature analogous to a bullfrog. They are an oddity, as they were technically the first to discover the jump drive and expand into the greater galaxy. However during their early stages of colonization they had an AI rebellion of their own. It only lasted four years but it devastated their civilization to the point they regressed almost back to pre-industrial levels. Most of their homeworld did, either becoming agrarian societies or violent despotic bandit thiefdoms. Only fifty million people survived out of a population of billions. The only vestiges of developed civilizations that survived were their military stronghold left over from the war, who embarked on a long, grueling campaign of planetary unification after the last AI hub node was destroyed. They had achieved most of that by the time they were able to resume contact with their lost colonies, and were starting to recovery somewhat when the Alkrani found them. Since then they have become a meritocratic stratocracy with a council of ministers acting as head of state, most of which were former high ranking generals and admirals. Of the Big Three they were the most suspicious and doubting of the Cylons, and apparently made secret preparations for a surprise attack. Turns out they were proven right, and the plans they made saved them from being conquered outright. Other than heavy fighting on and around their homeworld, they are mostly unfettered and able to contribute to the larger war."

Adar nodded, pondering his next question and how to phrase it. He looked at Corman "As a theoretical question, how many battlestars would we need to send to make an impact?"

"Well, mister president," the Admiral replied slowly, carefully event, "that's a hard theoretical to answer concretely. The information Tammy gave us is mostly civilian-level access material. I can't give you an accurate estimate without access to actual tactical and strategic information."

"Try anyway."

"Yes, sir. Judging from the information available, we'd need to send in half of our active battlestar groups. Most of them our mainline units, including four of our six Mercury battlestars and half of our mid-weight battlestars, in order to be a decisive factor. Assuming we want to help in the liberation of the occupied Concordance worlds, we'd have to mobilize most of our current standing marine and army forces. Something to the order of ten million servicemen and women, plus hundreds of thousands of armored vehicles, and several million pounds of supplies and ammunition to keep them fighting. In order to reach the Concordance we will have to travel around Cylon space, which will take forty-seven plotted jumps. Almost two weeks of non-stop travel with only enough time to scout the next point and let the ships and crews rest. Pardon my Virgonian, sir, but that's a helluva long supply train to maintain. One we are not currently geared to easily support. All of our mobile forces are orientated for a fight here in the Colonies and the nearby systems. This is also assuming that this isn't some elaborate trap meant to pull our forces out of position for a surprise attack."

"That is a possibility that must be considered," Melissa added. "If the Cylons have the ability to create a brand new human body and clone it with such utter perfection it is more than likely that they could grow an 'alien' to give us the physical proof. With the amount of studies, written fiction, and historical documents the Cylons had access to when networked information archives were still being used it would be utterly trivial for them to create a society that is at once alien but still relatable enough that it isn't incomprehensible to most people."

"Seens a rather round-about way to set a trap," Adar mused. "With a battlefield so far away and requiring such preparation with so little proof to go off of. Surely they know we'll investigate before we take any decisive action, and even then we need to go through the Quorum and the rest of the legal process. If this is a trap, it is a very poor one indeed."

Melissa nodded in agreement. "Indeed, Mister president. Hence why I believe that we are dealing with the genuine article with the aliens. However it is possible the Cylons decided to pick a fight with the aliens, holding their real mainline forces in reserve, and wait for us to move the bulk of our fleet out of position before striking. That could be the trap."

Adar gave an annoyed, frustrated grunt and rapped his fingers on the polished wood desk. "I don't like this. Too many variables and questions without answers. Yet it seems like we are damned either way. We either send our fleet in and risk being caught with our pants down, or we wait and the Cylons have the industry base of a dozen worlds to use to overwhelm us at their leisure."

Melissa and Corman shared a glance, then Corman said. "I agree, Mister President. It was something Mrs. Brady and I discussed once this whole incident crossed our desks. She and I are in agreement that this situation requires more information. A diplomatic delegation would be able to discover the finer details through official channels, and an attached stealth cruiser or two could get a better picture of the battlefields themselves, giving is more concrete information in their war making technologies and any other advancements the Cylons have made."

Adar's brow creased. "That's a plan, yes, but the diplomatic team would require some kind of heavy escort for protection."

"Correct, they would need at minimum a battlestar group to provide protection. One of our Valkyrie groups would be too small and easily overwhelmed by a Cylon ambush force. We would have to send one of our Jupiters."

"I have the feeling you already have a 'star in mind?"

"Yes, sir. The Galactica."

"The museum ship?"

Corman nodded. "She's still a battlestar, sir. All of her guns still work and her internals are all in working order. It'd take a week at most to get her back up to full readiness at the Fleet Yards. We attach one of our smaller strikestar groups to escort her, and we have a whole new battlestar group to send. One that doesn't require sending one of our active units out of circulation for two months. Not to mention her commander has insisted on keeping his computers de-networked, limiting the chance she can be hacked by the cylons."

"I remember he's also the man involved with Operation Black Star, who shot down our cutting edge stealthstar prototype. The one that cost nearly sixty billion cubits to make." Adar noted.

"That couldn't be helped, sir. I remind you that the events of the operation were due to a freak accident. Commander Adama did his duty destroying the stealthstar, denying the Cylons access to the ship's advanced technology and any sign that we were engaging in off-the-books black ops involving violating the Armistice Line. He is reliable and cool headed, even when his blood's up in a fight. Give him a mission, and he'll carry it through to the end. He would rather die than let anything happen to the diplomatic team or his fleet."

"And there's nobody else that you think would be more qualified for this?"

"In a perfect world, yes. However in this imperfect world, he is the best option unless you want to take one of our modern battlestars out of circulation."

Adar glanced at his desk for a moment, fingers arching in thought. "Alright, Peter. Get your ships prepped. Melissa, who do you recommend for our Intelligence asset?"

"The Loki, commanded by Colonel Ali. The Loki is one of our Raven-class Stealth Cruisers. Moderately well armed and Colonel Ali has had a good track record with joint operations far from friendly lines. She won't let you don't."

Adar gave one final nod then rose to stand. "Well then, it seems I've got a Qurom and a Colonies to break the news to. Let's get to work, ladies and gentlemen. Lords of Kobol preserve us and give us strength."

"So say we all," came the reply.

And here we are one week later with a new update. I'm hoping to keep this schedule as we go on. After the big reveal last time it seems only right that we go to President Adar to discuss the ramifications of the prior events. As I've never had the honor of being in a presidential meeting about aliens, I decided to take my lead from Lightning_Count's Dilgar War story, and the meetings between the leaders of the Earth Alliance. The only character-analogue missing from the comparison is someone filling in the Head of the Senate roll. Logically there would be someone from the Quorum of Twelve in the meeting, but currently there's no real roll for such a character in the story, as internal Colonial politics doesn't have a roll within the story. At the time, anyway.

Choosing the Galactica and Adama is probably seen as illogical to a few of you. Obviously the Admiralty and Adar would want to send something more modern, upgraded with the advanced in technologies made since the war ended. Not to mention nearly half a century old. It'd be like the US sending the original Enterprise CV-6 as part of a diplomatic mission to a re-emerged Lost City of Atlantis just before she was scrapped. The choice was because of several reasons. One is that when I started this I decided I wasn't going to have the human MC be an OC commander with an OC battlestar. Sure there will be battlestars and characters that weren't in the show, but they won't have the main focus. This story is about the set, canon characters and their journey through this new situation.

Now obviously I could have gone with the Pegasus and Admiral Cain. Personally I'm of the opinion that while Cain is capable of cold acts, it was Gina's interference and the Colonial Holocaust that drove her batshit crazy. Here she would be rattled by her lover being a cylon, but she doesn't have the baggage of the nuclear armageddon of her home on her mind. The choice of Adama over Cain was itself a matter of preference on my part, as I wanted to give the Grand Old Lady one last hurrah, as she'd logically get stuck with convoy duty or some other backline work if war were declared.

Coming up with the aliens was a fun challenge. While coming up with this story concept I decided to consult the series bible, and one of the tenants that RDM insisted on was no rubber forehead aliens or magic-like technology ala Star Trek/Gate. So obviously there would have to be some physically alien elements. However I didn't want to go full starfish aliens. So this is the compromise. Those of you who are BSG TOS lore nuts will instantly recognize the Hassari as the aliens who the Cylon Empire occupied, which was the impetus for the 12 Colonies to declare war on the Cylons. The Pheldains are the Delphians from the 2 parter Living Legend, which introduced Commander Cain and the Pegasus. I was originally going to have them be the bird people and the Hassari squid people, but decided otherwise. The Alkrani are based off a race I created in Stellaris, and the naming conventions will be showing. So I guess you could consider this, unofficially, a soft crossover with Stellaris.

I hope you all enjoyed this part, and I look forward to reading your comments. Next week we'll finally be moving away from all this heavy dialogue and getting to the action. Until then, happy Turkey Day Weekend.