Contact of Races

by wilkins75

Sequel to Contact at Kobol (Stargate/Battlestar). The Race has thrived for hundreds of thousands of years and who recently conquered their 5th world are heading toward Tosev 3, Earth believing the conquest to be ease against the sword swing savages. Little do they know that those sword swing savages are now one of if not the most powerful force in the Galaxy, the Tau'ri.

6. Chapter 6

Chapter 6 Reflections

Inside the hanger bay of the Battleship Yamato a Condor transport which was almost a mirror image of the Condor Bomber which had terrorized the Colonials during the war was being prepared to launch. Like its bomber counterparts, the transport had a narrow frame with extendable wings that could go straight or back into a V formation for speed and when it used it's hyper drive. It was painted black with the Tau'ri flag painted on the tail along with its ID number. Multiple windows where clearly visible on the side of the body of the plane which along with no weapon mounts on the wings was what marked it as a transport. Even so three Tau'ri marines where walking up a gang way to enter the plane, all three marines along with the two pilots, an unarmed diplomat and a technician where all wearing full combat space suits, which including power armor, body armor and small air tanks on their backs that would give them all six hours of life support. The three marines along with the pilots were also armed, the technician, the pilots along with the marines all carried pistols on top of that the marines carried heavier weapons. Since if a fight did happen they would be fighting inside the body of the Condor they forgo their Sir-15 assault battle rifles for the smaller Vector VI carbines. The carbines where smaller and therefor best to use in confined places and was a favorites of armored warriors who would have them in their tanks and APCs.

One of the marines disappeared into the cockpit with the two pilots took up position in the spare pilot seat as the reinforced door. The technician made sure the door to the cockpit was sealed so no hijack could have a realistic chance of being a success and then the door leading into the aircraft was sealed. The technician double checked to make sure the universal docking hood was firmly attached before confirming everything was ready for takeoff. The two marines and the diplomat took up three of the six seats which made up the front row of the aircraft.

On the outside the hanger bay crew went to work, the Condor was moved toward the launching position. If they wanted too they could have used the catapults to get the Condor off the Battleship faster however there was no rush and the catapults where more used for combat launches. The Condor moved to a launch position as a blast barrier shield activated behind the bird to make sure that the blast from the engines had no effect on anyone walking behind the bird at the time.

"Condor 13 you are clear for takeoff." said the hanger control

"Roger control, taking off now." said the pilot as he put his hand on the center control and moved it forward as the engines kicked out more thrust and the condor took off down the runway. It passed through the shield and entered space, before making a turn to move past the main section of the Yamato as it headed toward the large group of Alien ships gathered in the distance. They had already ID the flag ship or banner ship as their briefing told them the Race called it.

"127th Emperor Hetto this is Condor 13 from the Battleship Yamato." said the pilot over the radio, trusting the translator problem to do its job. "We have you in our sights and will arrive in a few moments."

"Understood Condor 13." said a hissing voice over the radio. "We are turning on docking lights now, will you be able to dock with our ship?"

"127th Emperor Hetto, we see the lights." reported the pilot as he saw the yellowish white lights which marked the docking arm of the races ship. It came out of the main body of the ship and jutted into space. "We have a universal docking seal on our ship, if we can't get a docking lock then we will come up with somewhere else to get you to the meeting."

"Understood." answered the operator as the pilot went to work. The link up was a little bit of trouble but not much of one. The main issue was that the hatch on the Race's shuttle was in the rear by the engines instead of on the side by the front like it was for the Condor. This gave the condor limited room since the area was designed to be backed into not pulled alongside of. The condor fired small rocket motors and moved into position.

"Deploying universal hatch." reported the technician as out of the side of the condor a long tube of blackened material stretched out toward the docking hatch of the Race. Once it reached the hatch it compressed on the end until it was air tight with the race's hatch.

"Board is clean, pumping in air." reported the technician to the pilot as the two marines and the diplomat moved into position. "Slight issue, they don't have artificial gravity, recommend we turn ours off for the moment."

"Understood." said the pilot as the copilot flipped a few switches and as the gravity was turned off inside the ship. At once the seat belts floated up slightly and so did the humans, the humans came back down as the small gravity plates in their space combat boots brought them down to the floor.

"Alright current temperature is 85 degrees, might as well make them conformable." said the technician as he pumped the temperature up, the suits being space suits had their own heating and cooling systems so they stayed at whatever personalized temperature the wearer wants. "We are ready."

"Alright." said the pilot as he radioed the readiness to the Race's star ship.

On board the Banner ship of the Conquest fleet Atvar floated near the entrees to the docking arm, he wasn't alone. Floating beside him was a senior researcher who had just been awoke from cold sleep and had been shoved into a situation he had no real idea how to handle yet.

"What are your first impressions of these Tau'ri?" inquired Atvar

"I am sorry exulted Fleet Lord but there isn't that much data yet." explained Senior Researcher Ttomalass "I don't have enough data points to get a good understanding of these Tau'ri, once we have more contact with them or at least the Tosevites they have taken into their Empire will allow us to get a better understanding of these Tau'ri."

"And you, Drefsab?" inquired Atvar to the most cunning male in the Conquest fleet and head of the Intelligence force in the Conquest fleet.

"I am highly concerned exulted Fleet Lord, this is something we never expected to come across." explained Drefsab "They have already demonstrated that they are more advanced than us, the issue is how advanced are they?"

"We are the Race we can bend them to our will, we have never failed we shall not fail here." countered Ttomalass, as he turned one eye turret toward the strange black craft which was extending a docking attachment and another to the squad of infantry males floating in the corridor behind them weapon ready. He knew at three more squads where armed and ready to move in if they had to, two infantry males would be coming with them as guards both of them where highly trained intelligence and special operations soldiers. They floated just behind himself and the Fleet Lord with their own rifles resting in their hands ready to defend their fleet lord and their ship if they had too. One of them had a large backpack which contained the long-range radio if they had to communicate the fleet.

Atvar paused for a moment as he waited for confirmation, he closed his eyes and thought. He wouldn't go down in history as Atvar conquer of Vantic 5 and Tosev 3. Then he gave the negative gesture to himself which caused the other males with him to look at him.

"What is wrong exulted fleet Lord?" inquired Senior researcher Ttomalass

"Nothing, really just thinking to myself." Admitted Atvar "I thought I would not go down in history as the first Fleet Lord to conquer two worlds Vantic 5 and this world here, Tosev 3, but I would go down as the first fleet Lord to make official contact with another advanced space faring empire. That is a first worthy of our history."

"That is a truth." confirmed Dresefv as the light on the air lock turned green informing everyone that the two ships where docked and they were cleared to open the doors.

"Open it." ordered Atvar

"It shall be done." answered a technician by the door as the door opened and Atvar was about to enter history. The doors slowly opened on both sides and Atvar's eyes widened a bit before he let out a hiss of annoyance. Standing there in the door leading into the strange ship where three aliens dressed in black wrappings. They stood on two legs and where taller than a male of the race by almost double, two of them where clearly infantry males since they held firearms in their hands. They all wore full face helmets however two of them had darkened visors which didn't allow him to see the Tau'ri only the one in the center the one who wasn't armed had a clear visor over his face. The face while somewhat hard to see was a Tosevite face.

"They sent a Tosevite to talk to me." hissed Atvar in annoyance. "Couldn't even send a true Tau'ri instead they send a subject race."

"Exulted Fleet Lord this tells us a lot." Countered Ttomalass "It shows that they put a lot of trust in their subject races."

"Maybe even enough to let them be infantry males." added Drefsab as he eyed both soldiers. "They appear to be not only very similar in size and shape as the Tosevite could it be that they are actually Tosevites."

"Then their emperor is a fool, would we entrust the safety of the Empire and the Race to the less civilized and cultured sword swing savages?" inquired Atvar before giving the negative gesture "No we wouldn't, but now let's go contact the Tosevite subjects of the Tau'ri empire."

Across the docking arm the three Tau'ri looked at the group of Race which floated in the hallway.

"They kind of look like a lizard who lost half his tail and chameleon eyes." said one of the marines.

"I wonder how they are able to focus with two eyes that are able to consider two different directions at once." Inquired the other marine.

"Some animals can do that." added the first marine "But why are they naked?"

"A race of nudists?" inquired the second marine.

"We shall see." Said the diplomat as they moved forward. To the amazement of the Race, they walked across the airlock and came to a stop a few feet away from the group of three alien lizards which had another two-armed lizards right behind them and even more behind them.

"Hello, I am Camile Wray Senior Under Minister of the Department of Foreign affairs of the Tau'ri government." greeted the former member of the Destiny crew to this small reptilian alien before her. The alien ran his eyes up and down her, in different directions at once which unnatural her. For the longest time, the alien said nothing. "I hope that the translator program in my helmet is working properly."

"It is working fine." countered the Alien to the main one's right. All of them wore body paint with different types of patterns and colors. "However as Fleet Lord, you should have shown him proper respect and allowed him first word."

"I do apologize for any displeasure you have had however our cultures are meeting for the first time. There is bond to be some misunderstandings." countered Camile "I will however point out that it was you who came to our system not the other way around."

"We came to conquer you Tosevites." Said the male in the center, the Fleet Lord. "It appears that the Tau'ri beat us too it."

Camile smiled a bit which caused the members of the Race to look at her in a way that made her believe they were confused.

"Now, take us to your Emperor's viceroy or other leadership in the Tosev system." ordered Atvar to this lower level lackey who was below him in rank. He wasn't about to show respect to a minor aid sent by the Tau'ri who was Tosivite. He would save his manners for the actual Tau'ri not a subject race.

"Our ship will take you and your party to our leadership on Earth." explained Camile as she turned her body and extended her hand to gestured the lizards toward the Condor. The lizards floated through space while the Tau'ri walked.

Atvar was more than disappointed when he entered the shuttle craft, a Condor they called it. There was very large seats that where clearly not designed for him or the race. That he could understand, they hadn't just made contact with each other but there was no other kind of chairs either. All the chairs seamed to designed for Tosevite there was no clear separation on the flight that would mark seats for Tau'ri and those for Tosevites. On a shuttle craft for the race on any of the subject worlds they would have a special area on some of the shuttle crafts as well as normal public transport which would have seats just for the subject races. Those areas would always be in the back part of the transport but here all the seats where the same.

His disappointment was only added too when he saw that the only other figure on the craft was another Tosevite. The four other members of the Race came onboard and took seats, Atvar would have sat by the window however he allowed Desefv and one of the soldiers/intelligence officers sit in the window seats. The Tosivites boarded and sealed the craft with a hiss of air. Atvar was hissing in frustration at the poorly designed seats when they began to pull away from the banner ship, the seats where not designed to fit them. In the Empire everything was designed to best serve the Race, to have something not work best for them was automatically badly designed to them.

"Praise the spirits of Emperors past that we can float those seats are even badly designed in zero gravity I would hate sitting down in one without a way to not sit on my tail stump." Said one of the soldiers as suddenly and to every one of the Race's amazement they began to feel the pull of gravity. A slight panic came over the members of the race as they were pushed down into their seats and where no longer capable of floating. It wasn't even micro gravity which could be active by spinning the craft at a high rate no this was full gravity.

"By the emperor." said Drefsab as he got out of his seat and stood on the floor of the transport. "I feel as if I am on Home?"

"Artificial gravity plates." explained the Tosevite as the members of the Race looked at the Tosevites with a mix of wonderment and hate, they were waiting to meet the Tau'ri not these Tosevites which where only a subject race and below the Race in standing.

The Tau'ri Alliance Vessel (TAV) Key West moved toward the Race's home world called Home, from the view of the Tau'ri on board the ship it looked like one of the last places any human would want to go yet alone live. Lots of deserts including some which made Death Valley look cool in comparison. The Akula class ship stayed near the lifeless world which occupied the next orbit out from Home with its cloak on it was totally invisible to any sensor of the Race, however with the cloak on it didn't have any shields to protect the ship. The main reason why the Akula didn't move forward was because there was just so much ship traffic moving around the planet. Almost no spot was clear for any long piece of time, multiple shuttle crafts and satellites moved back and forth in orbit with larger ships and space stations beyond them. Even the poles which are generally where clear was full of ships. In total, nearly a thousand ships where all gathered over the North and South pole and they appeared to be getting ready to launch.

"Have we spotting any signs of defensive stations or warships?" inquired the Captain of the Key West

"No sir, no sign of anything which looks like active military." explained the sensor operator "The only things which we have been able to spot from our current locations looks to be a museum. We could likely conquer this system by ourselves if we wanted."

"I would rather not call that place home." countered the Captain "I am going to assume that is a colonization fleet?"

"Yes, sir." confirmed the second officer. "From intercepts, it looks like they are scheduled to launch for Earth in a week, it will take them 17 years to reach Earth at their likely speed. The news reports say they are going to hold a ceremony by their emperor in a couple of hours to send the Fleet on its way. Then they will begin officially boarding the ships to head to in their own words bring civilization to a new world."

"Contact Admiral Hackett." ordered the Captain as he thought about what would be the best move. "Maybe a quick visit by the 7th fleet before they launch that fleet, I for one wouldn't want to go hunting down a fleet in the middle of the void."

"It would be better for everyone if they knew Earth was off limits before they launched that fleet." Agreed the second officer. "Their conquest fleet is already an issue."

"We can tow them back to their home with ease." Countered the Captain "It would take a while to move all the ships but it could be down easily enough. We will let the high command decide what to do until then we will monitor the situation."

"Sir, we do have a recon team on board." offered the second officer as the Captain placed his hand under his chin.

"No, I think not." said the Captain "We wouldn't gain enough information from putting boots on the ground. This isn't a world they have recently conquered and where they may be resistance. No, we will monitor from a distance."

When they stepped off the train, it was clear to the two colonial women that they were in a solemn place. They along with Robert walked down the stairs which lead up to the raised train platform and found themselves in a large parking lot. Acacia turned her attention toward Robert who had a look of slight pain from the memories on his face. Together the three of them walked through the parking lot toward the park filled with trees. They walked down a well light path however instead of having lights shinning on them from post all the light came from small sources around the path. Suddenly the two-colonial woman stopped as they saw the wall before them. It was made from white marble which towered over twenty feet into the air. It was light from below casting light up on it's frame, standing on either side of the entrees cut where two large stone wolves, the animal symbol adopted by the Tau'ri. To the side of the wolves stood two Tau'ri guards however they were not in the standard army uniforms that Acacia had seen Robert in. These men were dressed in black with white highlights in the form of gloves and the like. They whore no sign of ranks and they stood at perfect attention with long rifles that neither of the colonials had seen the Tau'ri use before. Each rifle was tipped with a bayonet which stood out even more. Above the entrees it read. "On November 7th 2020 at 9:38 am 516,103 was lost their lives in Nuclear Fire, this is their Graveyard"

"Honor guard, special unit special uniform." explained Robert as the three of them passed between the two guards. The two guards said nothing and instead let the three of them enter the memorial. The path led up to a large clearing where a towering bronze statue stood, it showed a group of 14 men and women raising a Tau'ri flag pole back into position. The flag which flew from the top was an actual flag not made of bronze but the rest was made in such detail. Acacia and Medea moved around the memorial looking at the statue.

"Flag raising after the strike." read Acacia from a display as she noticed Robert was standing looking up at the statue, he was looking at one of the statues among the group. It was hard to really tell the difference between the man and women in Tau'ri armor with helmets on but she saw the name tag on the statue, R. Lefeld. "You?"

"Yes along with members of the 101st and Chinese's 15th Airborne units." said Robert with a haunted tone in his voice as he remembered that day. "We were airborne testing out the Pelican transport when the attack happened and we decided to jump over Disney World to see who we can save. I don't really know who's idea was it was to raise the flag which had fallen in the entrees but when I saw two of my fellow Tau'ri struggling to get this fallen flag pole down. I moved over to help and found myself in that famous photo with us raising the flag with the mushroom cloud still rising in the background."

"The names in the wall are the name of the dead?" inquired Medea as Acacia turned and noticed that the inside of the wall which surrounded the park had names engraved and emboldened in gold which popped in the light.

"Yes, their names and ages." explained Robert as they moved down the path.

"How many statues are there?" inquired Acacia

"Seven with a center area where the tree of remembrance is for a total of Eight, however some are not yet filled." answered Robert as they moved toward the next statue area. The path curved with the wall of names on one side with the woods on the other. It was as if there was no nearby city, this place as quiet as a graveyard which it was. The next statue didn't stand as tall as the main on by the entrees but in some way it was even more powerful.

It was white marble which showed a Tau'ri solider, holding a little girl covered in blood in his arms. A heartbreaking scream of pure pain and sadness was forever carved in stone, here the Tau'ri didn't have a full-face helmet allowing everyone to see his safe as he held the little girl close but that scream of pain frozen forever in stone was haunting in the soft lights which had turned on after dark. The three of them where not alone there were other people but not many and everyone was showing nothing but respect to what was around them.

Atvar had one of his eyes turrets looking out the window at all time as the other scanned the area and studied the Tosevites before him. The Tau'ri empire which had assimilated them must have placed a lot of faith in their recently conquered races to allow them to be armed in any real way. Among the Race the Rabotevs and Hallessi which had been conquered for thousands of years where allowed to have job within local government but when it came to actual power those jobs where blocked to them. They could be clerks and the like, but Province Lord and even police officers where not something they could do, however these Tau'ri had entrusted the Tosevites to be not only soldiers but first ones to great a new and powerful neighbor like they were. That said a lot to Atvar about how this empire acted, it clearly had no real leadership and with no leadership came no planning and no planning meant they could be beaten with proper planning. He was just thinking about that when the voice of the pilot came out of speakers on the ceiling.

"We are now passing Mars." said the pilot voice as Atvar wondered what Mars was, then he saw it through the window. A blue green world with a massive ocean at the Northern pole that went down almost to a third of the way to the equator. A larger land mass on the equator and bottom half of the planet. That was clearly not Tosev 3 but it had to be no other habitual world was in the Tosev system.

"Excuses me." hissed Ttomalass as the Tosevite greater turned his head to look at him. "Yes, what is this Mars? It clearly isn't Tosev 3."

"Mars is the name of the planet you would know as Tosev 4." answered the Tosevite "We have terra formed it and the 2nd planet in the system, Venus so that all three can support life without the need for any extra equipment."

That caused both of Atvar's eyes turrets to snap toward the window, that was Tosev 4, 1800 years ago when the probe sent back its data showing the sword swinging Tosevites that was a lifeless red rock and Tosev 2 was not much better maybe even worse with the dense atmosphere. If both had been transformed in such a short time as 1800 years it was an achievement that no one back on home would believe possible. The planning alone for something similar in scale would be just as long if not longer than 1800 years and they would need to develop the technology to do such a thing in the 1st place.

"By the Emperor." Said one of the males as they saw massive amounts of light coming from the dark side of the planet as they moved past it toward Tosev 3.

"Three worlds there are three worlds here Exulted Fleet Lord, three whole worlds that are already fully colonized." stated Drefsab as they passed by another one of those defense stations as they neared Tosev 3. "If these Tau'ri have three worlds here alone they have at least 4 counting their real home plus any other worlds they conquered before they came to the Tosev system."

"They at least equal our Empire in size and likely surpasses it." confirmed Atvar with an angry hiss, he had just learned that this empire was not only a higher technological scale then the Empire but matched at least in size of their empire. He wondered for a moment how long the Tau'ri empire had been around, it had to be multiple thousands of years to be the size he knew they were at.

"We are coming up on Earth." Said the pilot as Atvar and the others turned their eye turrets toward the window to see Tosev 3. They were coming up on the dark side of the greater continental mass, once again his eyes widened as they saw the massive amounts of lights coming from cities. It was also strange unlike on home where cities where mostly inland away from the few small seas and lakes here the Tau'ri had built their cities on near the coast. "We are over North America will be landing in Gibraltar in a few minutes."

"Gibraltar? Is that where the Tau'ri world capital and governmental centers at on Tosev 3 are?" inquired Ttomalass

"Yes and no." answered the guided "We are currently building our capital there but it will be moved when it is finished."

That caused the males of the Race to look at each other in confusion as they wondered if the computer program translating these Tosevites words wasn't in error. The Condor bounced a bit as it entered the atmosphere over the black sea and began its approach toward the runway on the still unfinished capital city. The pilot received and got the go ahead to do a flyby of the city to show their guests and it didn't disappoint.

"Spirits of Emperors past look at that." exclaimed the other intelligence officer as a city came into view. On land, the city was amazing but what stood out was the city rising from the middle of a bay which opened to the sea. It took up a the bulk of the bay, with six arms shooting off from a major central hub. On one arm was a group of low buildings while on another arm sat more buildings along with an open green space with a single building in the center. Tall thin towers shot up some of them only halfway finished. Only a few wide roads where visible and in the heart of it all rising from the center hub was a large doomed building that reached up toward the sky from an octagon base. A lot of the buildings seemed to be made with metal which shinned in the light from the star Tosev with large glass windows. Walkways connected buildings where visible as well as above the surface trains, a military base took up almost a quarter of one arm with a large amount of black painted killer crafts sitting on runways. They heard the landing gear come down as the Condor lined up to make it's landing on the civilian air/space port which took up an equal amount of space as the military base but on a different arm.

The condor landed smoothly before taxing past the normal unloading part to a special area which would allow the visiting members of the Race to exit the aircraft with a straight view down one of the main boulevard which lead toward the Southern entrees of the Tau'ri council building. When the door opened a blast of chilly air reached the members of the Race. It was mid-November on Earth so Gibraltar's average temperature was just about 60F/17C, the temperatures was perfectly fine for the Tosevites but to the Race it was equal to a very bad winter weather back on home.

The Race moved off the aircraft as their eye turrets moved in every direction they possibly could as they took in the city rising before them. It was very different than any of the cities back on home, each one of the buildings from home was designed basically the same. The same cube shape for private homes, the tall rectangle shape for apartment complexes, the same long and low rectangle for factories and so on. Even sky scrapers where all basically the same and went to the same height and had the same lay out inside. Not here each building was unique in some way, the skyline was not uniform, some of the buildings had pointed spires on top while others had flat tops. None of them where really the same. Aside from the buildings the road was strangely clear with most traffic seaming to move on the raised high-speed trains which were visible to the eye turret. The other thing that stood out was that everyone that the Race could see was a Tosevite there was of yet no Tau'ri that they could see.

"Where are your leader?" inquired Atvar

"They will meet you in the Governmental building we call the Tau'ri Congress." explained the aid pointing to the domed building in the center of the city. "We can walk there or we can get a transport, which do you prefer?"

"We will walk." ordered Atvar, in truth he would rather had taken a vehicle but walking would allow them more time to study the Tau'ri and their Tosevites subjects so walking it would be. Even as he hated the distance he would have to go to get there.

The 7th Fleet was the teeth of the Tau'ri military force in the Milky Way galaxy, it was the largest almost double the size of any of the other fleets aside from the 9th which equaled it in size and power. The 9th fleet however was the teeth of the Tau'ri forces in the Pegasus galaxy with the 8th protecting Atlantis. They would have no role in the upcoming issues facing the Tau'ri. Standing on board the Flag Ship of the 7th Fleet the TAV Missouri was the Admiral in command of the entire force Admiral Hackett. He was an older man dressed in his dark navy-blue day uniform with golden bars on his shoulders and collars marking him as a high-ranking officer.

"Sir, we have gotten a message from the Key West they are monitoring the situation on home and it appears that their colonization fleet is preparing to leave." reported the second officer. "We also have reports from the Jin and the Le Temeraire both over the worlds of Halless 1 and Rabotev 2 they don't report anything of note and no sign of any resistance."

"What about their last world, this Vantic 5?" inquired Admiral Hackett

"The TAV Spartan reports that they have entered the system and intercepted news reports confirm that there is terrorist or as we would call it resistance activity on the surface of Vantic 5. A lot of it in fact, multiple reports of riots in major cities along with armed resistance. It is hard to tell what the riots are really about, something about banning some type of food." Reported the second officer "They request permission to put recon teams on the ground to get a ground view of the situation."

"It would be hard to get a fair view of the situation on the planet from only the news broadcasts coming from the Race, no we need independent intelligence." said Hackett "Green light for recon but no contact unless fired upon."

"Yes, sir." confirmed the second officer as Hackett moved toward his situation map. The holographic map showed the ships under his command, the fleet was spread out into multiple different task groups not all gathered as a single large force. Still in his personal task group he had four battleships and two carriers plus half dozen cruisers and a dozen destroyers. If he was ordered to he could fight a war all on his own and with the amount of fire power under his command he could likely win and if waited for the rest of the fleet to gather he would win. He turned his attention away from Vantic to the situation on the Race's home world. If that colonization fleet left it would cause a major headache getting them back home. It was time to put on a show for this Race on their own home world and he knew how he wanted to do it. He only had to sell it to high command.

Darkness had full engulfed Valhalla as Robert, Acacia and Medea moved through the Valhalla War Memorial. The memorial was set up like a wagon wheel with an outer wall with seven spots open for statues and a center area where the tree of remembrance given to the Tau'ri as a gift by the Nox was located. Paths connected each of the statues areas and the tree in the center.

"Are you feeling as guilty as I am?" inquired Medea to her best friend as the three of them walked down the path. Robert being a Tau'ri didn't have the same guilt that the two Colonials had but he carried the memories of being there and seeing the blast.

Some of the memorials where simple while others where more complex each hit in a different way. One was a mound of rubble with statues of men and women, Israeli and Palestinians Robert called them which meant little to the colonials pulling people from the rubble. One was as a gathering of statues all of them children playing a game called Soccer Robert explained to them. At first, they didn't understand it then he explained that it was from a photo taken seconds before the flash. None of the children had lived but their ghostly statues now stood in remembrance. There were others too, memorials to the bravery of the Tau'ri in the war but they didn't hit the Colonials as hard.

"Yes." admitted Acacia as they turned the corner and both stopped and looked out in confusion. There was rubble there, rubble like a side of concrete or a large piece of stone. Some wood like from a house and other items just spread out over the area, each of them contained in see through containers. Robert moved up to one of them and stopped, the two women moved up to him.

"What is this?" inquired Acacia as Robert looked down at the clear protection. Acacia and Medea followed Robert's eyes and they saw that the protection was for a piece of roadway which had been cut away. On that piece of roadway was the shadowy image of a humanoid figure.

"They call this area Shadows." explained Robert as both women looked around, each of the pieces of what they thought was rubble had the shadowy after image of a person which had been burned into the material by the heat from the nuclear blast.

"By the Lords of Kobol." whispered Acacia as she looked at the ghostly afterimage of human beings.

"Jesus Christ." answered Robert with a sad laugh as he crossed himself and lowered his head slightly. A couple of moments later he raised his head back up and crossed himself again. He wasn't the only one doing so while others were doing different things like placing candles before the shadows. They moved from Shadow to Shadow each one was slightly different but just as heart breaking. Robert turned to head down the center path to the tree of remembrance and Acacia was about to follow him when Medea grabbed her by the hand.

"That only six statue areas isn't it?" stated Medea as Acacia thought about it for a moment.

"Yes." Confirmed Acacia after a couple of moments of thought, before looking down the path which would lead to the last statue.

"Maybe it is another empty spot." offered Medea

"Maybe." said Acacia as she headed down the path. Like all the others it was curved so that the statue was out of sight from the other statue groups. Her eyes widened as she saw what was waiting around the bend. There sitting on a slightly raised pad was a Colonial Pallas Tank, the tank which the Colonials had believed to be the best of armor and weapons until the Tau'ri smashed it was itself smashed. It had clearly been destroyed by some tank round going into it. The side was a mess and the barrel of its massive main gun was pointed to the side and down. The wreckage was twisted and scorched by fire, bullet holes where clearly visible and standing on top of the tank was a statue. A statue of a Tau'ri solider, a woman by the looks of it. She held her arm high along with her gun in a cry of victory, a victory over her people.

"I didn't want you to see this statue." said Robert behind her.

"So you built a monument to defeating us?" inquired Acacia

"I didn't but that is based off a photo taken at the end of the war, I believe it won a lot awards and so it was chosen to come in here to show the end of the war that started when the bomb went off over the lake." Explained Robert as he tried to defend the statue and smooth over his girlfriend's feelings. "This is a memorial not only to the attack but to the war. The end of the war is part of that."

He waited, he waited for Acacia to get really upset only instead she lowered her head in resigned acceptance of the fact that as much as it hurt her to show the defeat of her worlds she had to admit Robert had a point. She didn't turn to look at the statue instead she headed down the center path which lead to the Tree of remembrance.

She couldn't see the tree earlier because of other trees in the way but when she saw it, it took her breath away. It was around 60 ft. tall with pure silver leaves and bark as white as snow ran up and down its narrow center. Flanking it on either side of the tree were two twisted remains of massive trains. One facing north the other facing south, both of them where twisted metal but yet somewhat beautiful in a way. Around it area stood Tau'ri honor guards with candles burning, some of them where preminate in nature while others had been left behind by people. Two small shrines where located to the East and West both of them open for anyone to worship as they pleased. Acacia walked up to one of them and saw a row of candles, some of them where lite others where not. A woman in front of her picked up a small thin stiff rode and lite one of them on fire before bowing her head. She walked away as Acacia walked up to the candles. She picked up the rode and placed it into the flames of a nearby candle before lighting one of the candles.

"May the Lords of Kobol or whatever is waiting on the other side take your souls into their arms and protect and look after you." prayed Acacia "May you rest in peace."

Fleet Lord Straha hissed in anger and frustration at the news reports which were coming across every news channel on Vantic 5. They kept showing the same images, riots in the streets and the natives even those in areas that according to the experts said was more inclined to make themselves like the Race.

"All this because of some stupid food?" inquired Straha to himself and a nearby aid who stood waiting to do whatever he requested of him.

"Exulted fleet Lord it would appear that this little piece of meat is actually the corner stone of their diet." stated his aid

"They have access to truly good food like Azwaca and other animals from home." countered Straha "They shouldn't go hungry."

"No they shouldn't exulted fleet lord however it is park of some traditional meal that their local superstition declares they must have every 15 days." explained his aid. "A meal that they must share with their family units."

"Family units, what a pointless waste of time which is a pain under our scales." hissed Straha "We need to break them of this idea that blood ties and who you mate with matters outside of the line of the emperor."

Straha cast his eyes down as his thoughts turned to an idea to break the Vantic of their foolish idea called a family, it was rejected by Atvar because it would cause major problems with the local population in the short run. Atvar took a long view allowing these primitives too to keep their idea of a family and to cut it out so slowly that they would never notice. Because of that he had this slow bleeding wound of terrorism on the society they were building. It was time to cut it all out at once and fight through the pain of the social disruption it would cause. Straha moved toward his desk and pulled up the proposed plan on his computer, the plan had been rejected by Atvar now in his eyes it looked like a worthwhile plan.

"I want an updated version of this plan on my desk tomorrow." ordered Straha as his aid's eye turrets widened a bit.

"My apologies Exulted Fleet lord but the experts predicted that doing that would cause major problems with the Vantics." explained the aid as Straha turned an eye turret up to the TV screens which showed all the riots.

"Taking away their children all of their children to be properly raised to be like the Race will cause riots, but we already have riots." countered Straha "It can't get much worse and once we weather the sandstorm it will be done and it will be all for the best, no waiting for generations for them to civilized. They will be so within one. Better to close a wound even if painful then let it keep bleeding."

"It shall be done." said the aid he knew how the planners would hiss in anger at the idea of getting all this done in the time frame but Straha always rushed into things and he did have a point better to get it over with even though it will be painful. Once the young where taken away from their families and raised in the ways of civilization in the ways of the Race, they would be full and thankful citizens of the Empire.

President Elect Samantha Carter along with other high-level dignitaries both military and civilian awaited the arrival of the Fleet Lord Atvar and the other members of the Race Delegation. They had been getting multiple updates about their movement through the half-finished city. Sam was amazed about how fast the city was going up, that was mostly because of the Asgard technology which could make raw material such as trash and reform the atoms into anything they wanted. They had used that to turn trash into raw material for the war machine against the Colonies and they still used it today as a form to recycle. It wasn't prefect, the time needed to create something depended on the complexity of the item. Something like with computer bards took hours to make one while a piece of advanced composite metal took seconds and the entire city was going to be wired so it was impractical to use the city. It was decided that it would be more cost effective to use the technology to make the raw material and then have humans take up the process of finishing the material.

Carter turned her attention away from the city rising outside of the rotunda of the Tau'ri congress to the Rotunda itself. It was massive in size and scale just like the whole building itself. It was so large in fact that the over half of the entire Capital Building of the United States could fit inside the walls of the rotunda itself and still have space to spare. In the center of the was a perfectly recreated but fake Stargate that could be beamed out and replaced with the real one if needed to welcome important people. The rotunda was so large that there was a second floor which wrapped around the area, that was held up by multiple arches, in between the arches where differ ent statues of some of the greatest man and women in human history both on Earth and Lanagara. Most of the statues where made from either bronzes, marble, granite or other stones. Along the back walls where different paintings from some of the best in human history on display in either their original form or as a copy.

There was more statues and paintings, which lined the four main entrees and exits into the rotunda, each one was themed to different parts of human achievements. One entrees was assigned to the Sciences here one would find statues of great scientist/thinkers like Benjamin Franklin and Albert Einstein. Across the way from it was the entrees for to the arts where painters and writers ranging from William Shakespeare, Vincent Van Gogh, the Poet Lance Quoin from Lanagara and everyone in between could be found. The other hallway was for the great political and social figures such as Mahatma Gandhi, Nelson Mandela, Abraham Lincoln, Mother Teresa and others where there. The last entrees had statues from great military and heroic man and women in history, statues of George Washington, Alexander the Great, Admiral Yi and Julius Caesar along with others could be found there. There was at least one statue/painting in each of the area from each nation in the Tau'ri alliance plus additional statues/paintings from Lanagara and they could and would be changed out over time.

"Here they come." said Daniel as he stood beside her as Sam turned her attention toward the science entrees as a group of what looked to be lizards who walked on two legs and stood as tall as a 12-year-old headed toward them. Two of them where armed but they were flanked by two armed Tau'ri guards themselves and more guards stood ready to respond if need be. The other three where not armed outside of claws on their hands and needle like teeth in their mouths. Their eyes could move independently and all of them looked around the room before coming to lock on the delegation gathered in front of them.

They came to a stop as Carter stepped forward, she had like all the other Tau'ri had small ear pieces which allowed her to understand what these members of the Race where saying.

"Still no sign of these Tau'ri, all I see is more of the Tosevite subjects. Exulted Fleet Lord, I feel we are being lead around by the snout." Said the one on the left of the one in the center. He had the least amount of body paint on him and from everything she knew that meant he was of the lowest ranking.

"Some of these appear slightly different." Said the one to the right of the one in the middle, as his eyes ran up and down Sam and Daniel, one on each. "The one in the center with the longer fur on the top of his head has fleshly mounds on his chest, could the Tau'ri be so like their Tosevite subject that it is hard to tell the difference."

"Possibly." admitted the one on the left.

"No, we are the same species." explained Carter as a Tau'ri with a helmet capable of speaking in the language of the Race translated for her. "I and the others with these fleshly mounds as you call them are women, we are females."

"Ah…of course they would have to be some differences between the sexes but still it is hard to tell them apart from males, it isn't like with us where something as clear as scale patterns and tail length that can be seen with a single glance of the eye turret to determine a female from a male." Said the one on the left.

"This is getting us no were." hissed the male in the center before turning both eye turrets on Sam. "I am Fleet Lord Atvar of the Race, I am here to talk to the Leaders of the Tau'ri about the situation. Now I demand to see the Viceroy the emperor of the Tau'ri sent when they conquered you Tosevites."

"Fleet Lord Atvar, I am President Samantha Carter." Said Sam, it was mostly true. She would be officially sworn in in two weeks and since she was the 1st Tau'ri president she had basically been given Presidential power even though she wasn't officially the President yet. "I am afraid you don't understand, Tosevites as you call us is the same thing as a Tau'ri."

"Yes, yes." Confirmed Atvar as he moved his hand in something that must have passed as a nod. "You Tosevites are citizens of the Tau'ri Empire but I demand to speak to the Tau'ri Viceroy whatever your Emperor sent to govern you Tosevites when they conquered you."

Sam smiled slightly it was time to drop the facts on them.

"Once again Fleet Lord, you do not understand We are Tau'ri, this is the home world of the Tau'ri. Tosevite and Tau'ri are the same species." said Samantha as the members of the race looked at her, in what she imaged to be a look of surprise and confusion. "We were never Conquered, we are Tau'ri."

Well I hope you liked this chapter, I would like to thank everyone who reviewed and I hope you keep on reading. Thanks Wilkins75.