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.

24. Chapter 24

Chapter 24 Growing Understanding

Fleet Lord Straha of the Conquest fleet and Fleet Lord Reffet of the Colonization fleet stood by a small window in the stone fortress which had once been the home of the Nysha family which once ruled the city state which had the same name. The Race had taken the city when they had taken Vantic 5 into the Empire, now they had lost it. For the first time in the history of the Race the armed forces of the Race had been defeated, not since the end of the last war on Home when all the Race was brought under the rule of a single Emperor had the forces of the Empire been defeated until now. Straha let out a hissing sigh, that truth wasn't fully truth, there had been some cases in each of the conquests where a small squad of four to six males had been captured or killed in a firefight but those where tiny defeats. As Straha looked out over the burning remains of the governmental center and in the distance the rising smoke from other fires and hanging over it all was a warship. It somehow remained flying overhead without any visible thrusts pointing directly toward the ground.

"Emperor forgive me." Hissed Straha as he turned one eye turret toward the large wooden door, he knew that outside those doors where likely either crawler guards or Tau'ri guards.

"How…how is any of this possible?" hissed Reffet, he was a civilian and had no combat experience he had never even held a gun in his claws and couldn't understand how the military forces of the Race had fallen.

"This world must have been targeted by another Empire for conquest and they hit us hard." Stated Straha it was the only possibility that came to mind. It should have been impossible but it was the only idea that made any real sense.

"You are close." Said a voice as a figure walked in, he couldn't tell who it was as first. With their strange wrappings and visor helmets he couldn't tell one of them from another. Then again even after all these years he couldn't tell the difference between most of the crawlers, he had gotten better of telling the difference between crawler females and males but he still made mistakes. Straha noticed the metal symbols on the collar of the wrappings around the figures neck was the same silver five pointed item.

"General Jager I assume?" inquired Straha

"Correct." Stated Jager as another Tau'ri entered the room, followed moments later by the terrorist Prince Unia and another crawler. The strange seats which had once filled the room had been replaced long ago, they where all wrong for the Race but someone had brought up folding metal chairs which seamed to work for the crawlers and a different kind of the Tau'ri. The two Fleet Lords used the chairs that the Race had brought in after they began the process of turning this fortress home into a governmental center. "We are here to inform you what will happen next."

"You are going to take over this world and add it to your empire." hissed Straha

"No, this world belongs to the Opochti people we are only returning Ovea to her people." Corrected Jager "We will have a trading relationship with them but they will be free to forge their own path."

"And we will forever be grateful to the Tau'ri people for liberating us." stated Prince Unia "As for you, you should be thankful as well to the Tau'ri."

"I fail to see why?" countered Reffet

"Because of your crimes against the people of Ovea you are both under arrest for war crimes along with many others among the Race." explained General Jager

"What crimes?" inquired Reffet confused

"Taking away our children for one!" yelled Prince Unia at the top of his lungs as he leaned forward over the table only to be pulled back by the Tau'ri General.

"We where only attempting to give them a proper education to be truly civilized." stated Reffet

"And you can try that defense, but I don't think it will get you far." stated General Jager "We have families as well and men and women have died to save their children and what you did is seen as a horrible crime among the civilizations of the galaxy."

"The rest of the galaxy?" inquired Straha "Or your Empire?"

"We have no Empire or Emperor, we are an alliance of people who have come together under one government in which citizens vote for leaders to run the government by popular vote." stated General Jager "I believe your Fleet Lord Atvar called it snout counting."

Both lizards looked right at Jager, both of their eye turrets locked on him when he had said Atvar's name. Then with planned slowness he reached up and tapped the release button on the side of his helmet, after a half second in which the computer built into his power armor confirmed there was air or gas the front of the helmet released. Then he lifted his helmet off his head to show them for the first time that he was human.

Straha blinked rapidly as if he had a piece of sand stuck in his eye, he couldn't believe what he was seeing a Tosevite was sitting across from him, he had surrender to a Tosevite. The general spoke in grunts and groans only to have the Tau'ri aid behind him translate for him.

"I bet you are surprise, so was your fleet Lord Atvar when he arrived in our home system." stated Jager "He was even more surprised to find out that the sword swinging primitives have advanced to become arguably the most powerful civilization in the galaxy."

Straha and Reffet just looked at Jager in confusion not really understanding what was being said.

"See you assumed that all civilization advance at the same rate, that is not true some spread and advance much more rapidly." explained Jager "For example only 14 years ago, that would be 28 of your years we the Tau'ri only settled our first colony, now we have three and another civilization the Lanagara joined us raising our total number of worlds to 5 with more settlements planned. We simply outpace you and as you can see our military is far more advanced than yours."

"You lie!" hissed Straha but it was a weak hiss, he could see out the window the floating starship which somehow stayed up with no clearly visible engine thrust pointed down. If a Race ship attempted that they would run out of fuel and crash into the ground but the Tau'ri ship just floated there without a care. "What you claim is impossible. There aren't even 5 inhabitable worlds within that travel distance from Tosev 3, the only ones are those of the Race and you haven't conquered our Empire."

"Truth." stated Reffet

"Well your empire could be crushed and conquered within a day or two but we have reason to do that now." stated Jager "Your worlds are too hot, too dry and the climate overall is not to our likening we have found worlds better suited to human kind."

"Then why attack us?" inquired Reffet

"Because you sent a fleet to conquer us and we don't like it when a primitive race gets conquered by a more advanced one." Stated Jager "Which is why we aren't going to take over your Empire, we are going to return Ovea to her people and return your people back to Home. If your Emperor agrees to finally talk to us, we will make a peace deal. If not well…we may have to destroy your empire after all and make peace with a new Empire."

"We have sent a message to Home, they will be ready for you." Stated Reffet in what sounded like cocky tone as he opened his mouth in a laugh. "It is so simple math that even a big ugly Tosevite like you can understand, the message is traveling at the speed of light and even at half the speed of light they will have years to prepare for your arrival."

"You assume we will be traveling slower then light?" countered Jager as Reffet's mouth closed with a snap. "See we have Faster then light technology, the fleet currently floating over Ovea was in fact over Home only 3 tenths of an hour ago."

The Race used a different time scale, instead of 60 minutes in an hour they had 100, if Jager did his math right it came to around 18 minutes from point to point. Either way it made no difference, they would arrive over Home before any radio message from Ovea reached them.

"Not that you will ever see home again." Said Prince Unia "Both of you and everyone one else of those who had a hand in taking away our children will face justice."

"What?" inquired Reffet

"You committed crimes against the Ovea people remember, you will pay for those crimes." Stated Jager "I believe that Prince Unia and the Ovea people will likely sentence you to the maximum punishment they have."

"Correct…death." stated Prince Unia as Jager let out a sigh, the Tau'ri still technically had the death sentence but only for crimes against humanity such as terrorist using a WMD or treason against the Tau'ri in the form of spying in time of war. Those where the two exceptions to the ban on the death sentence under Tau'ri law.

"You can't be telling the truth?" inquired Straha

"That is their laws." stated Jager "However Prince Unia in his grace will allow you and all those members of the Race who committed crimes against the people of this world to live, if your emperor agrees to peace. If that happens you will be removed from Ovea without any property and allowed to return to Home. If your Emperor doesn't agree to peace then your fate will be in the hands of the Opochti people."

Fleet Lord Atvar had pushed his fleet beyond all safety standards risking the lives of every male in his conquest fleet but it had payed off. They arrived at Home and began to unload the massive amounts of military equipment. For the first time since unification land cruisers and other weapons of war moved into defensive positions around the Imperial palace. Anti-air missile systems where rolled into place crushing perfectly maintained rock gardens under the treads. Some of the most combat experienced veterans moved into the imperial palace to support the Imperial guard force.

Atvar himself moved down the imperial audience chamber, the black marble polished to a shin as he moved quickly past the hanging banners of every Empire defeated in the history of the Empire. There where banners there from long defeated Empires which had once fought for control of Home along with the true Empire. There where also the banners from the empires of the other three worlds within the Empire however there would be no flags Empires defeated from the 4th world in the Empire, Tosev 3. Now it may be the Empire itself which could fall and fall to the Tosev Tau'ri, at the idea Atvar let out an angry hiss.

"Excluded Fleet Lord Atvar." stated a voice as Atvar turned toward a semi-hidden side door. Instantly he got into the special position of respect reserved for the Emperor himself as Emperor Risson entered the grand hall. His golden body paint being the only one of it's kind across the entire planet a sign that in the ancient past the Emperor was seen as the sun itself.

"Your majesty it is an honor to meet you." stated Atvar "It with the last Emperor who sent me out to conquer Vantic 5 and Tosev 3."

"Yes, I was there when he sent you out." stated Risson as Atvar blinked as he tried to remember seeing the future emperor in the crowed which had gathered for the ceremony, however the crown prince generally wore the same body paint as a court page. That was a tradition that dated back before unity and it was so he would be hidden incase of an attack or attempted capture of the Prince. "But none of that matters, we have much more pressing business. The Tau'ri are a grave concern to me Fleet Lord and I am giving you a new mission."

"Any mission you give me, it shall be done your majesty." stated Atvar

"Defend Home." ordered Risson

"I have already begun your majesty and in a few days I will have the entire conquest fleet deployed in defense formation around home. I have ordered our engineers and ship makers to attach missile launchers to the ships of the fleet and our ground forces are moving as we speak." Stated Atvar "Killer crafts are moving to airbases around the planet and…."

Their meeting was interrupted as an aid rushed forward and took up the poster of respect. The Emperor gave this young page a look as he stood back up.

"Excuses me your majesty, exulted fleet lord but a single Tovesite ship has just entered the system and is heading toward us." Stated the page

"Already?" hissed Atvar as his mind began to race with the possible, sadly everything he had been taught about conquest didn't really prepare him to defend Home against a stronger force then the Race could field. "Order our ships to form a defense line between Home and the Tovesite ship."

"I will be done." stated the page as he ran off only to run into another page who was running up. If it wasn't for the look of pure fear on the young male's face it would have been funny.

"Your majesty, exulted Fleet Lord a Tosev shuttle craft has just landed in the main courtyard." Reported the page as Atvar's head snapped toward bend in the nearby corner. The main hall was shaped like a L with a large main hall for bringing those coming to the palace before the Emperor but a smaller section for where members of the Imperial Court to prepare those coming before the Emperor, that area lead right out into the main courtyard. He did a quick mental check, the Tau'ri shuttle was likely less than half a city block away.

"Your majesty you need to head down to the bunker, we will make sure you are safe." stated Atvar as Risson moved his hand in the negative gesture.

"No, I have been restrained by the protocol and I will see these Tau'ri Tosevites now." ordered Emperor Risson as Atvar looked at him with concern in his eyes. "Do not worry Fleet Lord, why would the Tosevites bring themselves to the palace to harm me, it will gain them nothing and with all this military force around me they can't touch me."

"As you command, your majesty." stated Atvar "At least let me call on more palace guards and Infantry Males?"

The Emperor paused for a moment and Atvar wondered if he had overstepped his duty and was about to get punished by the Emperor himself.

"Yes, that would be wise." confirmed Emperor Risson.

The pair of Owls had landed minutes ago as Admiral Hackett stood in his dress whites in the middle of the courtyard of the Imperial Palace of the Race. His eyes scanned the walls they where large, he had to admit that, but they were designed to defend against swords and arrows not what he had under his command. Along those walls where palace guards which stood out in their pure grey body paint and soldiers of the Race who wore body paint of assorted colors. He could also see anti-air missile system which had rolled into the courtyard. It looked a lot like a soviet era SAM system with a row of five missiles waiting to be fired. Likely nearby was a tracking system and replacement missiles however the system had failed to detect his Owl until it decloaked and it hadn't detected the other Owls which flew overhead.

"Sir we have movements on the steps." stated one of his body guards as he turned and looked toward the main building, it kind of reminded him of a strange cross between the forbidden city in China only Russian onion doomed towers. A large staircase lead up toward a massive wooden door, the door itself was made out of some kind of tiger stripped wood and looked capable of stopping a charging elephant. In the ancient past that door along with the arrow slits on the main building would have been a last line of defense. The staircase was split into two with a landing in the middle, it was here that dozens of Imperial guards now appeared, most of them armed with rifles and now wearing body armor but still a few had long spears. Then he saw the doors at the top of the stairs open and a pair of figures appeared in the doorway. He recognized the body paint of one of them as a fleet lord, likely Atvar and the solid Gold paint of the figure beside him meant it had to be the Emperor of the Race Risson.

"Well that took less time then I thought." said Hackett as he straightened his white cap as a rush of wind kicked up by the unseen craft's engines kicked up around him.

Emperor Risson stood at the top of the grand staircase looking out into the courtyard, he had been in this spot countless numbers of time but this time was totally different. He could spot the strange black shuttle craft sitting to the right side of the courtyard, slightly off the center line. The could see a group of Tau'ri Tosevites standing around the shuttle, all but one of them where dressed in a strange mix color wrapping. All of them where clearly armed and the sight of armed none members of the Race was something totally new to him. No subject race was allowed to be soldiers or police officers, yes there was a few who could become professional hunters but there wasn't many of those to begin with and those 3 groups where the only ones with access to firearms. Seeing armed aliens who could actually go to war with the Empire was unnerving. The only one who wasn't armed was the one dressed in white and the one who didn't have his face covered, even as he wore a strange covering over his fur covered head. Then he noticed it, a small amount of sand kicked out from all directions directly in front of grand staircase.

Before he could make note of it a shimmer of light appeared in that area and another one of those crafts appeared before them. Only this Tau'ri shuttle craft was different, it wasn't painted black instead it had a mix of silver and blue painted on it's side. While all his attention had focused on the new craft he had failed to notice that the Tau'ri infantry males had formed up into two rows with the male in white standing in front of them. As one all the males slammed their weapons to their shoulders with the barrels pointed up as the male in white snapped to attention and raised one hand up to the fur around his un-moving eye on one side.

That is when a figure stepped off the new shuttle craft, it was a shorter male with yellowish fur on the top of his head and was dressed in black wrappings which was a different style then the male in white. He returned the gestor as the male in white and the soldiers relaxed a bit.

"Excuses me your majesty but if I am not mistaken that is Tau'ri President Carter." explained Atvar as he focused on the figure. "It is very hard to tell them apart but the way they are acting I believe I am correct."

"Who is he?" inquired Risson

"Forgive me for correcting you your majesty but he is actually a female." corrected Atvar who felt wrong just doing that for the Emperor, like every male and female in the Empire. He had been trained from birth to take the Emperor's word as law and to correct him was rare. "She is their leader, chosen by snout counting but…."

"Go on." Ordered Risson

"In their system, she holds the political and governmental power." stated Atvar as he took a breath. "In short to them, she is their Emperor and holds as much power as you do."

He expected the Emperor to explode to hiss in anger at the idea that someone could hold the same amount of power as the Emperor instead Risson only let out a resigned hiss.

"I see." Stated Risson as he looked at the figure again, trying to tell if it was a female but for the life of him he couldn't tell the differences between the male Tosevite in white and the female Tosevite who was their leader. He finally settled on the longer fur on the top of the head and that the male was taller. Height was a difference between males and females of the Race as well but there was no clear difference like scale pattern and stances to inform him of the difference in Gender.

Then he noticed a group of males and females with the body paint of reporters and others with the paint of camera operators came out of a side entrees to the courtyard.

"Who let them in? I gave orders that no reporters where allowed in the palace." hissed Atvar

Down by the Presidential Owl Samantha Carter also noticed the newly arrived members of the Race, she could see large bulky cameras similar to ones she saw in the late 80's early 90's being carried by about half of them. The other half carried what she guessed to be microphones.

"So you did manage to get into their computer system." stated Carter

"Yes, Madam President." confirmed Admiral Hackett with a slight smile. "It wasn't that hard actually, we sent out clearance papers for them to enter the palace and the guards followed what the papers and computers told them they had to do."

"We could easily fall for a similar trick but right now it works for us." said Carter as she turned her gaze toward the Emperor of the Race Risson. His golden body paint made him stand out, judging by how the sun reflected off him she wouldn't have been surprised if there was actual gold in the paint. "Now shall we begin?"

"Everything is ready, Madam President we can begin whenever you want." stated Hackett as Carter nodded her head and turned and headed toward the staircase following behind her was Admiral Hackett, two unarmed aids who would serve as translators and a dozen armed soldiers. She reached the steps and began to move up, the moment she did she saw the massive group of guards and soldiers tense up.

The moment Carter's foot reached the first step all the guards raised weapons and took aim. To the amazement of every member of the Race in the courtyard and thanks to the reporters watching on TV a blinding flash of light filled the courtyard. When the light cleared every guard and soldier which had formed a protective barrier between the Tau'ri and the Emperor were gone.

"By the Emperor" hissed Atvar as Emperor Risson tensed up as the Tau'ri delegation moved up the stairs. The small group of Tau'ri soldiers stopped at the base of the stairs but their president, Admiral plus the two aids did keep moving up the stairs.

"Where did we end up transporting them to?" inquired Carter as she moved up the stairs with a little trouble. The stairs where not designed for her feet but instead the much smaller feet of the race, and the spacing between steps where also different.

"To a sports stadium across town." answered Hackett as they moved up the stairs, stopping just a few steps down from Emperor Risson. Carter and Hackett bowed their heads slightly as a sign of respect but didn't take up the full poster of respect that the Race normally required.

"Emperor Risson, I am President Samantha Carter of the Tau'ri Alliance." Said Carter through her translator "Please forgive us for beaming away the guards, they are all alright. They appeared at a sports stadium. This isn't how we wanted to do this but your protocol master kept giving us the run around and we need to discuss the current situation."

"I agree." confirmed Risson "The Protocol Master has been removed from his position, so now we can move forward with an audience to avoid any conflict between our empires."

Carter lowered her head a bit and let out a sigh.

"The conflict has already begun, your majesty as of four hours ago all Military and governmental forces on Ovea or as you call it Vantic 5 surrendered to the joint military forces of the Opochti freedom fighters and the Tau'ri military." explained Carter as Emperor Risson turned both of his eye turrets to Carter. "The only thing now is to decide how this will end."

"You are at war with the Race?" inquired Fleet Lord Atvar

"Yes." confirmed Admiral Hackett "However we have already reached our goals where for this war. Ovea and her people are free and now the ball is in your corner, do you want to keep this war going at unbelievable cost to your Empire and her people or do we finally sit down and talk."

"We are the Race we have never failed." stated Atvar

"Everyone, every civilization fails at some point." countered Carter as her mind turned to the older powers, the Asgard, the Gao'uld, the Wraith and the Ancients. "The greatest powers that the Galaxy has ever seen have failed in time and are no longer with us. One day your Empire will fall just like some day hopefully in the distance future the Tau'ri alliance will also fall."

"The Empire has been around since before you Tosevites learned how to make fire and we will not fall to you." countered Atvar "You have one ship in orbit while we have an entire fleet. It looks to me as if you have walked into a stand pit here. We can destroy it and move on."

Carter turned and nodding to Hackett, who in turn to his translator who sent the order up. For what seamed to be the longest time nothing happened then a greenish glow appeared in the distance sky. For a moment nothing happened as they saw green glow, then it burst through the sky a green beam of energy shot out of the sky striking in the distance. The ground shook from the blast hitting in the distance. The green glow was for a moment brighter then the sun casting everything in a green glow then it disappeared only to be replaced by the rising dust which was turned up by the blast.

"That was the main beam weapon onboard the Missouri." explained Hackett

"You are attacking us?" inquired Risson

"We fired our warning shoot into the radioactive exclusion zone you have set up around where you stored the old nuclear waste and where you tested your first nuclear weapons." explained Carter, she knew that the Race had left the place abounded even after the nuclear waste decayed to the point that it was totally safe. "No males or females where harmed in the shoot, however we need you to understand the situation before you."

"You can't beat us, you will only cause hard to your Empire and it's people if you tried." Explained Hackett

"You are threatening us?" stated Atvar

"Yes, a threat has been given but also a hope a hope that we can finally sit down and agree to a peace that will end this pointless struggle that will only end with the destruction of your Empire." Stated Carter "That is something we do not want."

"Then why attack us in the first place? Why not allow us to bring culture to Vantic 5?" inquired Atvar

"Because they don't want your culture, you attacked and overthrew their culture." Explained Carter "However when it comes to the other worlds in your Empire the culture of the Race has become the culture of the two races who you conquered thousands of years ago. They are members of the Race in all but biology. We can't remove them from your Empire but we can prevent you from forcing your culture on another world."

"And what happens if we do leave Vantic 5, when we colonize our next world and we have to do that. What will happen if it is populated as well." Stated Risson as Atvar looked at his Emperor in amazement, the idea that the Race would return a world to the natives was unthinkable. "That is the other fork of the tongue, we need worlds, I don't care if it is Vantic 5 or Tosev 3 but those two worlds are the worlds nearest to us that can support life. We need to have at least one of them, if we don't have them then overpopulation will lead only problems."

"And we had an over population issue for a while too but we have a solution." Stated Carter "Even after this short conflict between our people we are still willing to honor the deal we offered your delegation."

"Wait." ordered Risson as he raised his hand up "What offer?"

"We offered two worlds for your people to settle on and all you have to do is leave Ovea." Explained Carter "We offered that deal to your Protocol Master and the delegation you sent to Earth."

Risson let out an angry hiss.

"He didn't tell you about that offer did he?" inquired Carter

"Truth, he didn't tell me about that offer." Admitted Risson "So tell me where are these worlds? Are they so far away that we can't reach them? We don't have your faster than light travel technology."

"No, they are actually within this solar system." Stated Carter "Using the same terra forming technology we used within our own system to make Mars and Venus habitual we can make two of the worlds in this system habitual."

Risson placed a clawed hand under his snout considering, two new worlds within the same system of Home would be something that was only considered in cheap sci-fi stories. Homefrying or as the Tau'ri call it Terra Forming was something considered impossible, yet in every report it was clear that the Tau'ri had done that.

"And how long will this process take?" inquired Risson "How many decades?"

"The ship is currently deployed elsewhere but can arrive within two weeks and the first world can be ready for settlement within 6 months with the second one two to three months later." Stated Hackett as he looked at the stunned look on the lizards and remembered something important. "Sorry those are in our dates, I don't have the exact time but within 2 of your years you will be able to begin settlement operations on both worlds."

That time table still amazed the lizards which take an entire generation to plan out every detail of complex operations. The plan to conquer Tosev 3 and Vantic 5 had taken hundreds of years and here the Tau'ri where going to give them two worlds to colonize within 2 years. It took longer then two years to finish the outline of a report about the effects that adding another world to the Empire would effect the Empire. The Race had never studied the effects that having three populated worlds within a single system, they had no idea how that would affect the citizens of the Empire and the Empire as a whole. It would take decades to study the effect and plan to counteract any issues that would arise but here the Tau'ri where going to do it in less than two years.

"Would this agreement work for you? The evacuation and abandonment of all claims to Vantic 5 and her people for the terraforming of two worlds." Inquired Carter

"In principle I believe I can agree to that but there are still many details to go over." admitted Risson

"Then I recommend that we carry on this conversion in a better place where we can work out the details." Offered Carter

"Agreed." stated Risson as he turned an eye turret toward a nearby royal page who had been watching from a distance. "Prepare the main conference Room, we will arrive in 10 minutes."

"It will be done, your majesty." Stated the page before moving off to carry out his orders.

"Allow me to be the first Emperor in the History of the Empire to welcome a…leader from an independent Empire from another world." Said Risson, he knew at least Carter wasn't an Emperor or an Empress but he did call the Tau'ri Alliance an Empire when it wasn't. The Tau'ri shrugged and let it pass, they where making too much progress. "Please follow me into the Great Hall, I will personally show you it while the conference room."

"It will be an honor, your Majesty." Said Carter as they entered the Imperial Palace.

While the news of the conflict between the Race and the Tau'ri had been front page news across Tau'ri space with multiple hours covering every small detail of the conflict. The fact that the Race was taking away children had pulled at the heart strings of the Tau'ri people helped the story stay upfront. Since it was on Tau'ri news it was available for public viewing in the 12 colonies of Kobol. For the most part the Colonials shared the same anger at the Race as their Tau'ri counterparts, however the Colonials had no dog in the fight. The military operations were of great interest to the Colonial Government.

"So the Tau'ri kicked the Fraken Ass out of the Empire of the Race?" inquired President Roslin as she stood behind her desk in the Presidential Estate. "Does this surprise anyone?"

"In some ways." Admitted Admiral Adama as he took a drink of his coffee, it was a new popular blend sweeping the colonies of half Caprican Brown bean and half Tau'ri Blue Mountains. "The Tau'ri seam very interested in that world for some reason, they sent an entire fleet. Why would they do that when only two or three ships could have done the job."

"Why would they?" inquired Roslin as Adama shook his head.

"I have no official idea Madam President, but they wanted that world badly it must have something important to them." explained Adama as Roslin let out a sigh, she was half tempted to turn to the intelligence officer in the room and ask what the Colonial Intelligence offices knew. She didn't, because the Colonial Intelligence offices had a hard time getting anything of great worth on the Tau'ri.

"Madam President." Said Intelligence officer "We may now know what the Tau'ri are after now but we may have a line to gain more information about their goals. The Intelligence Community want's the green light to set up a few pleasure houses on Aquaria and use the workers in them to learn what the Tau'ri are up to."

"So you are going to use prostitutes to uncover the secrets of the Tau'ri?" inquired Vice President Baltar as he sat in a chair to Roslin's left. "Pillow talk, kind of old school isn't it?"

"It is, but it has worked multiple times in our own history and we are even considering going after the growing number of Colonial Citizens who are in relationships with Tau'ri personal." said the officer "We have a list of the ones we know about and…"

"And I will stop you there." Said Roslin as the Intelligence officer looked up. "Do you remember that the Tau'ri have those wonderful little machines which can tell if a person is lying or not. The Tau'ri place them everywhere to get on their base or their base housing and in a long term relationship people tend to go to each other houses."

"We didn't Madam President." confirmed the officer already seeing where this was going.

"And what do you think will happen when one of your new spies tries to visit their lover and fails the test? It will blow your entire operation." stated Roslin "No, no using boyfriends and girlfriends to spy to great of risk of discovery. Your pleasure house…I will take it under advisement. I want reports about how it would work and how to avoid any discovery by the Tau'ri."

"Yes Madam President." confirmed the Intelligence Officer

"Not sure this is a good idea." admitted Baltar "We are already on the path to being assimilated by the Tau'ri within the next 20 to 30 years it may be pointless to do this."

"It may." admitted Roslin as she looked at Baltar, he was going to be the next President that was given and after him his soon to be wife. Which one of them would sign the treaty disbanding the Articles of Colonization and replacing them with the Charter of the Tau'ri Alliance? She wasn't sure but it would be one of the two she was sure of it. "However we are still an free power and we need to gather intelligence."

"Understood Madam President." Said Baltar "Either way it is nice to see the Tau'ri kick the fraken crap out of someone else."

"Agreed." Said Adama as they turned their attention to the next item on the list, rebuilding efforts on Tauron.

For the Race on Vantic 5 they had no idea what to do, they suddenly found strange dark ships floating over their cities and then word came from the Fleet Lords of the Conquest and Colonization fleets that they had surrender the world. Few of the Race believed them and then they began to see the Tau'ri appear on corners of streets in large cities and rolling through smaller towns with machines of War. The Vantic didn't know what happened either and then Prince Unia appeared to them and announced the deal he had made with the Tau'ri alliance and that they where free. Then the celebrations began.

The Opochti people began to celebrate in their own traditional ways and in ways similar to most culture across the galaxy that celebration involved a lot of food. They began to cook their traditional meals including the ones using the meat from the tiny lizard which looked similar to the Race which had been banned. Upon seeing this some of the members of the Race called it in to the police who came to arrest the offending parties.

"We are liberated you can't do this to us!" yelled a Vantic male as he was lead into the police station of a small town.

"You broke the law." Stated the officer only to stop in his tracks when he saw a large group of his fellow officers leaving the building without duty equipment on. It was too soon for a shift change then he saw that the police station was full of crawlers not his fellow males and females. "By the Emperor what is going on?"

"The Police is under new management." said a voice as he saw a tall figure standing on two legs and dressed in strange wrappings. "You are now longer working here."

"What?" inquired the officer "Who are you and who do you think you are?"

"I am an officer in the Tau'ri military and I am now the officer in charge of the police here and these men and women are the officers who will keep the city safe." Stated the Tau'ri officer "If you don't believe me here is the signed order from your fleet lord you are to obey all orders from the Tau'ri Military and Opochti freedom fighters under Prince Unia."

The lizard scanned the paper work and with a resigned hiss let go of his prisoner and turned and walked out the door. That is when he noticed a large vehicle with a heavy machine gun on it and more of those strange Tau'ri creatures standing around it.

"You are free to go." said the Tau'ri officer as the Opochti male thanked him and headed out the door as well. With that done he turned and looked at the local official, he had been the law officer for the town before the Race came and had turned to street cleaning after the Race came.

"You should have arrested the Race slim for doing that to that boy." Said the former and now current law officer.

"Maybe but that is why your Prince Unia agreed to have Tau'ri officers over you for the moment. We don't want riots and violence." Stated the officer "The Race will be gone in a few weeks and if we keep things calm the smoother it will be."

"I understand but I don't like it." admitted the Law Officer as a member of the Race came in to report a crime only to stop when he or she saw the lobby fully of Crawlers without a member of the Race in sight.

"Can I help you?" inquired the Tau'ri officer

"Yes, those crawlers are now wearing wrappings again and that is against the law go out a remove the offending wrappings." Said the Race

"No, that is totally legal now." Said the Tau'ri officer "If they are rioting, looting or hurting you in any way."

"Well have you smelled their food that is painful to breath." stated the Race

"Kind of smelt like Indian food to me, I was going to give it a try." admitted the Officer "Either way offending smells from food isn't against the law, so is there anything else?"

"Clearly you don't care about proper order." stated the member of the Race as it stormed out.

"It is going to be a long day." complained the Tau'ri officer.

The skies where just beginning to brighten as Starbuck roomed the skies with two squadrons of Vipers. They had moved out over the now ice-free oceans of Aquaria much more than they had for their earlier training seasons.

"So we have Death Gliders followed by Cylons Raiders and then another round with the Tau'ri then we are done." Said Starbuck over the wireless as she scanned the sky. Beside her, her wing mate Justinian was also scanning the sky. "You still have a chance to get in the top 20 and win one of the jobs."

"I know and I will get one of those jobs." stated Justinian with force in his voice. "Now where are those Death Gliders?"

"No idea but we they are out there." stated Starbuck.

In truth there was no Death Gliders up at the moment, in a twist to throw off the colonials and to keep them guessing the Tau'ri stealth frigate Normandy which was scheduled to be the last challenge was actually up instead. Along with the Normandy flew four of the newly upgraded Eagle fighters and together they formed a V formation, they where out of visual eyeball range but within sensor range for the pilots.

"Marking targets." Said EDI as she sat at her own copilot seat across from Joker. She flicked it over to Jeff which it came up over his screen. The Viper formation was marked in multiple different colors and numbered, the color was the assigned weapon system to take down the viper and the number was the order of destruction.

"I have a flight plan laid out." Said Joker as he moved his flight plan over to EDI who scanned the map and nodded her head in agreement.

"Alright bringing weapon systems online." Reported EDI as missile tubes opened up and rail guns which sat recessed in the haul raised up into a fire position. In total 22 rail guns moved into position giving the Normandy 360 degrees of fire against aircraft, the rail guns weren't designed to take on capital ships for that they had beam weapons but they left those charged down.

"3…2…1…executing." Stated Joker as he pushed the Normandy forward, the scram jets the ship had for in atmosphere. The Normandy rolled over into an attack position and headed straight toward the Squadrons of Vipers. The vipers saw them at the last moment as the rail guns on the Normandy opened up with training laser rounds. The Normandy dove through the vipers before spinning around for another attack run.

"91% kill rate on first pass." Reported EDI as she focused on firing on the Vipers now that they were under attack.

"Surprise it was that low, I always imagined that computers would be able to drop everything 100% of the time." Stated Joker "Like how you see a killer robot in the movie but it keeps missing the hero. You're a robot you should be head shooting everyone."

"No machine is perfect and 8% of those missed in the first round where last ones to be targeted only 1 viper actually moved out of the way much faster then I expected." Admitted EDI as she focused on that Viper. "Kara Thrace Starbuck top of the class here, she is doing very well I have only shot her down three times compared to the average number of 9. She is first to come at us, that was how I shot her down the first time."

"Well the mission is still young." Stated Joker as they kept the mission going.

Kassquit couldn't believe what she was hearing, the Empire had lost Vantic 5? How could the Race loss? How could they loss to the Tosevites within a day and how could they Emperor then meet with the Tosevite leader as an Equal. She had seen the flash of light and the massive cloud of dust and sand which rose up in the distance after the Tau'ri showed the power of their weapon systems.

"What do you think will happen?" inquired Kassquit to a nearby Palace official who had been assigned to keep an eye on her.

"Whatever the Emperor wills to happen." stated the Palace official "He will do what is best for the Empire."

"Yes, he will." said Kassquit as she wondered if the Emperor would take her own personal happiness into consideration. She was nothing in the grand total of the Empire and all her education in the ways of the Race told her if she had to give up her own happiness for the good the Empire then she had to. Even so she didn't want to go back to Vantic 5 if she had to follow the backward uncultured laws of her biological race instead of the cultured laws of the Race.

Emperor Risson of the Race looked down at the draft agreement that the Tau'ri had placed before him, he scanned it with care. The terms where simple, he would order the removal of all members of the Race from Vantic 5 and release all claims to the world and Tosev 3. The settlers of Vantic 5 would have to leave behind all their processions, livestock and buildings when they returned to Home. They would be allowed to bring back a small bag of their own items and any personal pets but the rest where forfeited to the Opochti people as payment for their occupation. They would also ask for forgiveness and pay retribution to Opochti people which equaled half of the entire budget for Imperial Household for 50 years, 25 Tau'ri years. It was a harsh price to pay but it was better then the cost of a war and with some quick math came out close to the money earned by resources shipped from Vantic 5 to other parts of the Empire during their rule.

He also had to sign the official border between Tau'ri space which now surrounded the Empire of the Race on all sides. He also had to agree to allow the Tau'ri to open an Embassy on Home but they in turn would allow an Embassy on Tosev 3. The Tau'ri would open a faster then light communication network between Home and he other worlds of the Empire and that was on top of Terra-forming two worlds. It was straight forward and rather simple.

"I believe we are in agreement." Stated Carter as she studied the second copy of the document, it was both in the Language of the Race and on the other side in the language of the Tau'ri.

"Yes, we are." said Risson as he looked at the agreement again he couldn't read the Tau'ri words but he could read the one on the Race side. He would honor those words only as Emperor his word was law and as such he could sign this document and it be totally legal once for all.

"Then shall we sign?" inquired Carter as Risson moved his hand in conformation.

He signed his copy and watched as President Carter signed her copy, then they switched copies and countersigned and like that the conflict was over.

Well I hope you liked this chapter, I had planned to have this chapter out earlier but I got hit hard by a late season flu bug which took me off my feet for almost a week. I have only one more chapter planned for this story with a remote chance of a second chapter to finish wrapping everything up. Now once this story is done I will take two weeks or so off before starting the next story in the series, the Mass Effect story. So until next time please keep reading. Thanks Wilkins75.