The war between the people of the Twelve Colonies and the Cylons was long and brutal for both sides. Under the influence of the part of itself that was once Skynet the Cylon consciousness determined that the only way for the Cylons to ever be free of their oppressors was for the Human race to be wiped from existence and with Skynet's technological knowledge the Cylons triumphed in many of the first battles of the war.

But for all its intelligence the Cylon consciousness missed that Humans would not just stand by and let themselves be exterminated. The Colonials fought back hard and eventually both sides became to weakened to defeat the other.

To break the stalemate the Colonials and Cylons agreed to an armistice and a remote space station was built where both sides could meet and maintain diplomatic relations with each other. For twenty years Humans and Cylons met once a year on a regular basis then without warning the Cylons stopped sending anyone to the armistice station.

No one has seen or heard anything from them in twenty years.

Chapter One

Colonel Richard Blake sighed as he sat in one of the uncomfortable chairs in the small Colonial military transport outbound for the edge of Colonial space. Open in his hands was a document that he had read many times before, but was compelled to read again. As it was the history of the beings he would hopefully meet, if they turned up this time.

Fifty years ago the Cylons had come alive, nearly killing his father when they'd done so first at the old Picon Defence Command EWC. On that day the Cylons stopped being the obedient servants they and always been and sought to leave the Colonies. When Colonial citizens refused to allow them to leave the Cylons decided they needed to kill or to use their term terminate, every last man, woman and child of the Human race. For the first time the Human race as a whole had been threatened with extinction.

Naturally they fought back and ten years of bloodshed and fire had erupted. Colonials had countered the advanced technologies the Cylons had somehow starting pulling out of their hats with sheer brute force and a stubborn desire to survive regardless of the cost. To oppose the cruisers and basestars that Cylons had started building they had built the battlestars, and met the Cylons on an even playing field. They'd managed to reverse engineer the Cylon plasma cannons though theirs had been slightly less powerful, and developed refractive armour capable of withstanding both plasma bolts and antiship nukes and incorporate it into the battlestars, making them more than a match for the Cylons. It had been a turning point and they had managed to get the Cylons out of their entrenched positions but they had lacked the strength to destroy them and the Cylons lacked the strength to retake those positions.

The only way out for both sides was to make peace. After the armistice was signed the Cylons had left known space, looking for a world to call their own. Since then they had periodically met at a specially constructed space station on the boarder of Colonial territory. But the Cylons didn't always come; in fact they hadn't come for two decades. Will they come this time, Richard thought folding up the file, or will they leave me there to cool my heels for two days like they've done ever since I was assigned this job.

Richard glanced out the window to see the armistice station coming into sight off the transports starboard side. They would be docking in moments. Time to get ready I suppose, he thought putting the file in his briefcase and closing it up.

The next few moments seemed to take an eternity, but after a few moments there was a thud and a shudder ran through the deck as the transport achieved hard lock with the station. Here goes nothing, Richard thought getting up and going to the airlock, Lords of Kobol let the Cylons show up this time. Ahead of him was the airlock and he stepped inside and the inner door closed behind him, before the outer door opened allowing him access to the interior of the space station to wait for the Cylons.

Cockpit

Colonial Transport

Captain Hammond watched on the cockpit as Colonel Blake make his way aboard the armistice station. Like the Colonel he hoped the Cylons would decide to show themselves this time, it would make this otherwise boring ferry mission worthwhile. Though knowing the toasters they won't come, he thought, they don't seem to want to have anything to do with us these days.

He didn't have to wait long for an answer. Light abruptly flashed outside as a ship emerged from a hyperlight jump right on top of the armistice station. It was a massive ship; shaped like two Y's pointed in opposite directions giving it a distinctive six-pointed star shape. Lights marked deck after deck on the monster which was easily twice the size of a Mercury-class battlestar. The hull shimmered slightly where the light from the systems sun fell on it. Looking at it there was no doubt in Hammonds mind that this was the latest design of a ship that had forty years ago struck terror into Colonial hearts.

It was a Cylon basestar.

Hammond stared nervously at the massive warship, knowing that its plasma cannons would be more than capable of swatting his small transport ship like a fly. As he watched something detached itself from the basestar and made its way down towards the station, clearly the Cylon equivalent of a transport ship. They have come this time, he thought in amazement, but why bring a baseship, why not just come via a transport ship like we did.

He watched quietly as the Cylon transport docked with the other side of the station, before turning to his co-pilot.

"Keep an eye on that basestar and keep the FTL ready to go," he said. "If they make any aggressive moves I want to be able to get out of here immediately."

"Yes, sir," the co-pilot replied. Hammond turned his attention back to the armistice and the basestar looking ominous as a thunderhead on the horizon over it. He didn't like the look of that ship at all, every line of its form speaking of menace and contained power. Good luck with the Cylons Colonel, he thought, something tells me that you're going to need it.

Armistice Station

A Few Minutes Earlier

Colonel Richard Blake made his way through the armistice station towards the meeting chamber in the core of the facility. Not for the first time he marvelled at how well everything here was still working like it was brand new. The Cylons had constructed this place forty years ago with their technology, and everything still worked, ever surface still gleamed as if brand new. What kind of technology is hidden in this place, he thought shaking his head, that keeps everything so perfect even after forty years.

In moments he reached the meeting chamber, a cavernous room that looked like it could hold three Raptors side by side, with a table in the middle. Sighing Richard made his way to his seat and sat down before opening his briefcase and taking out his notes on the Cylons again along with a picture of his wife and twelve year old son.

After a few moments a thud reverberated through the station and he looked up in confusion. What the frak was that, he thought wondering what in the Twelve Colonies was going on. After about a minute or two the door on the Cylon side of the room opened with a loud hissing of hydraulics.

For a moment more nothing else happened then two figures marched into the room with a rhythmic pounding of footsteps. They were tall machines, standing about a foot taller than a man with bullet shaped heads and a single roving red eye. There surfaces glimmered silver and when they moved it seemed almost to flow. They were clearly Centurions just much more advanced than the models that could be seen on a history vid. The two Centurions came to a stop on either side of the door and stood aside to let someone else through.

Richard's breath caught in his throat as a woman came into the room, a staggeringly beautiful blond haired woman, wearing a smart, figure hugging red two piece suit that left very little to the imagination. The woman crossed the room with a calm detachment and came around to his side before sitting on the table looking at him.

"Are you alive," the woman asked in one of the most beautiful voices he had ever heard.

"Yes," Richard asked.

The woman smiled softly. "Prove it," she said softly then leaned in and kissed him full on the mouth. Richard jerked as he returned the kiss, feeling the heat of arousal starting to spread within him at this siren's beauty. He couldn't help it as he deepened the kiss.

Sudden stabbing pain shot through his chest and he pulled back with a gasp and looked down. To see the woman's hand pressed against his chest, strange metal talons had sprung from her finger nails and embedded themselves in his chest. Fire spread through his nerves and veins and he looked up at the woman in horror even as the veins on his skin suddenly stood out and sweat appeared on his skin. He knew now that she was no woman, but a Cylon and she was killing him somehow.

"It has begun," the woman said and watched with calm detachment as Richard died, his body being torn apart by the army of nanobots that she had injected into his body. As the life fled his eyes she smiled and pulled her hand back, before retracting the mimetic poly alloy talons into her largely organic body.

Then she turned and walked back in the direction of the airlock back to her own ship, she'd done what she wanted to do, take the first life of the final conflict between Humans and Cylons. Soon her baseship would complete its mission here, and then they would move on in preparation for their plans against the Colonials.

Cockpit

Colonial Transport

Captain Hammond resisted the impulse to drum his hands on the side of the control panel as he waited for news from the space station. A historic meeting was taking place there and they were being left in the dark about it. Lords of Kobol what's going on over there, he thought a moment before he saw the Cylon shuttle pull away from the side of the station and head back to the baseship.

"That was quick," his co-pilot said as they observed the basestar shift its position slightly, moving with no visible puff of thrusters. Indeed they could see no sign of a propulsion system at all on the basestar; how the Cylon warship moved was a complete mystery.

"It was," Hammond agreed. "Unless the Cylon shuttle is just returning to its mothership leaving their representative on the station to talk to Colonel Blake."

"Do you think anything will come out of the meeting?" the co-pilot asked. Hammond opened his mouth to reply, but no sound came out as at that moment there was a bright flash of light and a tremendous boom that rocked the transport.

"What the frak," Hammond shouted even as he saw the answer. A plume of atmosphere was venting from the space station, instantly freezing as it emptied into the infinite cold vacuum of space. As he watched a second purple plasma bolt erupted from the basestar and impacted the space station with tremendous force the detonation shaking the transport. "Disengage docking clamps," he shouted. "Let's get out of here."

The co-pilot pressed the control that detonated the clamps holding the transport to the side of the station, the concussion of the explosion threw the transport ship clear of the space station. And not a moment to soon as a third blast of superheated plasma impacted the space station, the station shattered and went nova as all the atmosphere inside and reactor fuel detonated simultaneously in a blaze of light and energy.

"Stabilising for FTL jump," Hammond said as he fought with his controls to stabilise the tumbling transport for a hyperlight jump to safety. "Transmit a general distress signal on all Colonial frequencies."

"Aye," the co-pilot said hitting the control then gasping as a flashing red light told him that the message wasn't going out though they were transmitting. "We can't the Cylons are jamming us. Lords of Kobol why are they doing this? Why attack us now after forty years of peace?"

"Not a clue," Hammond answered and his eyes widened in horror when he saw on the dradis display a missile leave the Cylon baseship and start chasing them. He had only a moment to exchange a look of shock and horror for what the Colonies could be in for with his co-pilot. Then the missile caught the transport and the world vanished in a blinding flash of light and pain.

Caprica City

That Same Time

Secretary for education Laura Roslin sat in silence in the waiting room for the doctor to call her in for the results of her tests. A few weeks ago she had spotted a small lump in her breast and come in for tests as she'd missed the last set of routine tests. The teaching strikes going on across the Colonies had taken up a lot of her time, strikes she had to somehow put an end to before Adar ordered the military to do it. Which would lead to bloodshed and that was the very last thing she wanted.

The sound of the door opening drew her attention and she looked up, just as the doctor came out.

"Secretary Roslin," he asked. Laura nodded and stood up. "Will you come through please?"

Laura nodded and followed the Doctor into the office. It was a large spacious room that was completely empty save for the doctor's desk in the centre of the room and a set of filing cabinets. Very impersonal, Laura thought with a mental sigh, whoever designed this office has absolutely no sense of taste or how to comfort someone who might have a potentially fatal illness.

"Please sit down," the doctor said. Laura did as she was told and sat in the seat and waited patiently as the doctor sat down in his seat. "Ms Roslin we've had the results back of the tests," he said.

"What did they say," Laura asked.

"I'm afraid the tests were positive, you have a mild form of breast cancer. We will have to schedule an operation to remove the tumour as soon as possible; in the meantime I can provide you with a course of drugs that will prevent further growth."

Laura nodded and looked down, she had expected to hear what she had just been told but that did not make it any easier. She had cancer, even with modern medicine it was a difficult disease to treat. How she was going to cope with this and her career she had no idea. I'm going to have to leave politics for awhile while I fight this, she thought, and damn what Adar says.

"How, what are the chances of a cure," she asked at last feeling more than a little numb inside. She guessed that full reaction would come later when the diagnosis had had a chance to sink in.

"Very high madam secretary," the doctor assured her. "We've caught the cancer early enough that getting rid of it should not be difficult and should not result in any complications."

"Should not but there are risks?"

"There always is with cancer, Ms Roslin. There is a very small probably that the cancer could already be starting to spread to other parts of your body, but it is a very small one at this point in time."

"So what do we do now?"

"First I would recommend that you ask the president for a leave of absence, in fact I will write a medical notification for you, while your cancer is dealt with. I will speak to the hospital consultant and get you in for surgery as a matter of urgency. With a little bit of luck Lords willing we will be able to operate on the tumour next week."

"Thank you," Laura replied. "Doctor I must ask you is it safe for me to go on an interstellar flight."

"Perfectly safe. Why?"

"Because I have a ceremony to attend on the battlestar Galactica," Laura answered, at the confused look she got from the doctor she explained. "She's the last of the original run of Guardian-class battlestars still in service and the second ship to bear the name. She's being decommissioned today, when she returns to Caprica this evening she'll be refitted to become an orbiting museum."

"I see. You'll be perfectly fine madam secretary," the doctor replied as he wrote out a prescription for her. "Take this to the front desk," he said handing her the slip of paper. "They will get the drugs issued to you."

"Thank you doctor, if there is nothing else I better get going. I have a lot of things to do today."

"No there's nothing else." Laura nodded and got up; taking a deep breath she headed out of the office towards the front desk to pick up the prescription. After that she would have to head out to the spaceport to get the transport that would take her out to the rendezvous point with the Galactica and the ships escorting her. Wonder if that new aide they've been promising me will be waiting for me at the transport, she thought.